Firebreather x Danny Phantom
by Alyssa Dragonwriter
Summary: The Ghost Zone has a lot of doors. Doors to different times, doors to ghostly lairs. Why not doors to different worlds? Danny discovers this the hard way.
1. Prologue

**So! First time for everything. This is a short prologue, but hopefully it will help make the rest of the story make sense. Please tell me if I should continue!**

The Ghost Zone had begun to blur. Doors on every side of Danny screamed by as Danny attempted to fly even faster.

"I WILL HAVE YOU THIS TIME, GHOST-CHILD!" Skulker roared. Another missile missed Danny by inches. Danny flipped over, still flying as fast as he was, to fire an energy beam at Skulker. Bull's-eye. Skulker lost control of his jetpack and stopped where he was. Danny turned back around.

"Gotta find someplace to hide!" He planned aloud while frantically looking around. At that moment he saw the perfect door.

"Here goes nothing." Danny muttered while diving for the knob. "I just hope this isn't another ghost's lair." He made his wish. He yanked the door open just as he heard Skulker bellow an enraged war cry. Danny was on the other side of the door and had slammed it shut in less than a second. He started trying to control his rapid breathing while gripping the doorknob. Once he was breathing normally again, Danny took a look around. He stood in a dark alleyway. Danny quickly became human again before peeking out onto the sidewalk.

"Is that the Golden Gate Bridge?" Danny asked himself as he stared at the giant structure. He turned around to check on the door that brought him there.

It wasn't there anymore.


	2. Chapter 1

**Just a fore note. This is about two months after the prologue has occurred, with Danny moving through foster care. Now, enjoy reading.**

Danny slammed his textbook shut and put his head on it. _I am never getting home._ He thought. There he sat in Herbert Hoover High School. Alone, in the cafeteria. Danny stared at all the others who sat outside for lunch, since the weather as great. Danny sat back up and ran a hand through his hair.

"'Sup?" Someone said behind him. Danny turned to see who it was.

 _What was her name again?_ Danny thought as he replied, "Hi."

"Danny, right?" She asked.

"Yeah." He confirmed.

"I'm Isabel. So, how long you been in town now?"

"Just a week." Danny told her. Ever since he had found himself on this world, he had been moving through foster care like clockwork. _I wonder if Clockwork could help me get out of here._ Danny silently muttered in his mind.

"Hey, what are you doing for Halloween?" Isabel's question snapped Danny back to the present.

"I didn't have any plans, other than handing out candy." He said.

"You aren't even thinking about coming to the 'Ghosts and Goblins' Dance?" Isabel seemed to state her disappointment in a tired tone.

"I heard all about Homecoming. Two Kaiju crashed the party, right?" Danny said as he began packing his bag.

"Yeah, but that dance had a Kaiju alert. This one doesn't. If it makes you feel any better, you can come dressed as something so that no one recognizes you. But, that wouldn't be very progressive."

"I guess I could go. But I don't know anyone." Danny swung his backpack over his shoulder.

"You'd know me. I'll be with Ken, Jenna and Duncan. Tell you what- you can come without a date. Just promise you'll be there, okay?"

"You have an odd way of being convincing." Danny sighed. "Alright, I'll come."

Isabel shot her fists into the air.

 _Now my problem is what I'll wear._ Danny took a deep breath. Isabel looked at her watch and said,

"Lunch is about to end. See you later."

"See you." Danny waved as she walked away.

Danny closed the door to his room. He dumped his backpack on the floor and fell onto the bed. _I don't even know what to go as!_ Danny groaned into the fabric. He started floating up to the ceiling, where he turned around to mull the problem.

"I could go as Phantom." Danny quietly said to himself, going ghost as he said so. He flew down to his mirror, where he hovered cross-legged and looked at his appearance.

"No, I better not." He decided. "I wonder if I could dress as Technus or Walker." Danny thought aloud. He looked around his room for a moment before muttering, "Nah, I don't have the stuff to make a costume." Danny sighed as his foster mother knocked on the door. Danny instinctively returned himself to normal and dropped to the floor just before Allie opened the door.

"How was school today Danny?" She asked.

"It was good. I'm planning on going to the school Halloween Dance on Friday." Danny replied.

"Is that so? I'm sure you'll have a great time. Do you know what you want to go as?"

"I can't decide. Do you have anything I could use?"

"I have Brandon's old vampire costume from a few years ago. I think it will fit you." Allie suggested. Brandon is her husband. Together they had two other children, Katie and Max. Fraternal twins, only nine years old and having a mischievous streak mixed with a telepathic link. Danny easily fit in, even if he was the target of many loving pranks.

"Really? Thanks!" Danny smiled. Allie closed his door as she went to get the costume. Danny sighed and looked at the calendar on the wall. He quickly realized, _Four days to the dance._ Allie returned with a long black cloak and a fairly nice tuxedo suit. Clutched in her hand were some fangs.

"I'll do your hair if you want." She offered. Danny shook his head.

"You've done so much for me already. I'll do the hair thing myself." Allie smiled and gave Danny the costume, then left the room again. Danny changed into the outfit, which fit him surprisingly well. He stared at the mirror for what seemed like forever, trying to decide if it was good enough for a school dance.

"Yeah, this will work perfectly." He told himself quietly. Once that was over, Danny changed back out of the costume and put it in his closet.

Tuesday.

Danny walked into the school only minutes before the warning bell rang. As he made his way to first period, he saw a group of boys who acted like they owned the place. Other students retreated from their path, and for good reason. One nerdy boy didn't see them coming and was shoved into a wall. The group kept walking, laughing as they did so. Then they spotted Danny.

 _Aw, crud._ Danny thought as they approached. Danny found himself pressed up against a wall of lockers.

"Hey newbie." The clique's leader smirked. His buddies chuckled. He continued, "Name's Troy. Troy Adams. You'll come to know me as the top dog around here." Troy placed a hand on a locker just above and to the side of Danny.

"As a welcoming gift, we'll let you go with only a bruise or two." Troy pulled back his other fist and thrust it at Danny. He ducked, causing Troy to punch the metal lockers instead.

"OW!" Troy wailed, shaking his hand. "Get him!" Troy commanded. Danny took off running, the whole mob of bullies on his trail.

"Just great." Danny muttered. "I've got another Dash and company to worry about."

Danny rounded a corner and almost ran into a girl.

"Sorry!" He yelled back as he ran. The other guys, however, barreled directly into her and knocked her over. They didn't stop or say 'sorry.' Danny wanted to go back to help her, but he couldn't without getting beaten by the boys. Before he knew it, Danny was racing along the edge of the outside wall of the building. He looked back, unable to see his pursuers. He became invisible and leaned against the wall to catch his breath.

The bullies finally reached the same spot and surveyed the area.

"Dang, that kid is fast." The larger one of the group whistled.

"Almost like Duncan. Quick and evasive." Another one agreed.

"Let's head back and get Troy. Then we can skip class together." A lanky individual suggested. They all left. Danny became visible in time to listen to the bell ring, signaling the start of the school day.

Danny reached for the class doorknob when the teacher opened it for him.

"You're late." Mr. Radley spoke.

"I'm sorry sir." Danny apologized. Mr. Radley sighed and let Danny through. Danny sat down in the back, by himself. Until Isabel joined him.

"Troy problems?" She asked.

"Yeah. Didn't get me, though." Danny replied. Isabel groaned before saying,

"Always goes for the new kids. Or the kids he thinks are lower than him. Depends on his mood that day."

Danny smiled, but dropped it as the teacher began talking.

"Today's topic is on the rainforests of South America. Specifically the symbiosis of…" Mr. Radley's voice became distant as Danny felt his eyelids droop. Hadn't slept much the previous night. Danny spent a good portion of that time looking online for a potential way of getting back to the Ghost Zone. No luck.

A ruler slapped the desk Danny slept on rather loudly. He was up instantly, facing an unamused Mr. Radley.

"I'd appreciate if you'd follow along, Mr. Nebel." Mr. Radley addressed him with the last name of his foster family.

"It's still Danny Fenton, sir." Danny corrected. The teacher snorted and returned to his lesson.

Time passed quickly. The school day was over before Danny could even blink. He finished putting all the things he would need the next day in his locker. A shadow moved over him.

 _I need a ghost sense for bullies._ Danny silently wished. He turned around to face Troy.

"Since you skipped this morning's lesson, I've decided to give you extra lessons now." The bully laughed. This time, Troy's friends had formed a circle around Danny, making escape impossible. Danny pulled his backpack onto his back, strapping it tight.

 _The one time I'd love for any ghost enemy._ Danny winced.

 **Woo! Chapter 1 has been uploaded! Hope you loved it. It'll be here that I tell you, dear reader, that I won't have a schedule for uploading in general. With a senior year to complete, there will be both free time and packed-too-full-of-activities time. Though I'd be happy to set a goal of making a minimum of 3 uploads a month.**


	3. Chapter 2

Danny readied his stance. _I can't fight them. Not head on._ Danny knew running away would be his best shot, again. Though Troy and his friends looked like they were expecting him to make a run for it. That's when the first hit came. A single punch from Troy directly into Danny's shoulder. Danny fell backward into the lockers and caught himself. He saw a leg sweep too late and found himself laying on the floor.

The entire posse began kicking Danny as he laid there. Danny couldn't hear much, but he heard someone's voice start yelling at the bullies. They all ran, leaving Danny to whoever had saved him.

"You okay?" The stranger asked, extending his hand. Danny looked at him. _Orange skin? Wonder how that happened._ Was Danny's first thought.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Danny replied, taking the stranger's outstretched hand.

"I'm Duncan. Duncan Rosenblatt." Duncan told Danny.

"Danny Fenton." Danny rubbed his head where one of the lucky jerks had managed to kick him.

"Oh, so you're the one Isabel's including in our group for the dance, huh?" Duncan guessed.

"She explained that to you already? Girl knows what she's doing once she has a plan." Danny laughed.

"But don't feel too bad about getting beat up." Duncan sympathized while changing the subject. "Troy and his gang pick on everybody. Trick is just doing whatever you have to in order to run away."

"They weren't keen on letting that happen." Danny groaned and brushed off some dirt he finally spotted.

"I gotta go. See you around, Danny!" Duncan raced away, waving. Danny waved back and walked the other way.

"My goodness! Danny, are you alright?!" Allie fretted over Danny's lightly bruised body.

"I'll be fine, I promise." Danny attempted to comfort her. _These bruises should be gone by morning._ Danny thought.

"How did this even happen?"

"I…uh…tripped."

"And battered your entire body?"

"It was a hill that I tripped on and rolled down."

Allie sighed, reluctant to accept that a hill had done this much damage to Danny. "If that's the case, then please go wash up for dinner."

Danny walked into the bathroom and turned on the faucet. After splashing his face several times, he stared at himself in the mirror. His eyes flashed neon green before he closed them and sighed. There was a knock on the door.

"Yeah?" Danny called through the door.

"It's Katie! Are you done? Dinner's ready. We're having enchiladas!" Her squeaky voice made Danny smile. He opened the door only to have a soft hacky sack hit his face.

"Gotcha!" Max yelled triumphantly, with Katie laughing at his side. The bag landed on the floor without much noise. Danny snorted with a half-smile.

"Well, I guess this means war!" Danny charged the twins and tackled them to the ground. Keeping them in his arms, he quickly started a tickle fest. The two children squirmed and laughed while trying to escape.

"Come on, you three. Dinner's not going to eat itself." Allie spoke from the kitchen. They stopped wrestling.

"Bet I'll beat both of you to the table." Danny challenged. The twins grinned deviously and simultaneously said, "You're on."

And the race began. Max took off and Danny followed suit. Danny suddenly tripped and saw Katie run by, sticking her tongue out in a fun manner. She looked away as she continued her trek to the table, allowing Danny the chance to fly/front-flip back onto his feet. He ran the rest of the way to the table, where everyone was waiting.

"We won." Katie chuckled, Max trying to control his laughter with her.

Wednesday.

This time, Danny peeked around the corners of the school hallways and doing all he could to avoid Troy and his buddies. He was only two corners from his next class when a finger tapped his shoulder, making him yelp. He turned around to meet a girl. The girl he almost ran into the first time he had met Troy.

"Sorry." She said.

"No, no, you're fine. If anything, I should be apologizing for the other day." Danny quickly said, keeping an eye out for Troy.

"You don't have to. Besides, you're not the first. I'm Jenna Shwartzendruber."

"Danny Fenton. That's a mouthful of a last name."

"Ugh, I know, right?" Jenna agreed, taking a sip of her coffee. Just then the bell rang, telling all students that class would start in five minutes.

"See ya!" Danny ran toward his next class.

"Bye!" Jenna called after him. Danny entered the door to History minutes before the late bell rang. Mrs. Haper began talking about all things concerning the French Revolution. Although his textbook was open, Danny was more focused on a book that was hidden on his lap. _Paranormal Mysteries and More_. Danny secretly hoped this would have some clue as to where a ghost portal could be. _I do not want to fly all the way to the Bermuda Triangle if I don't have to._ _Assuming the Bermuda Triangle even has the portal I'm looking for._

The lesson ended quickly and Danny packed up his backpack to leave. His foot hadn't even passed the door frame when he saw Troy and his friends harassing a fellow nerd across the hallway.

"Just give us the money and we'll let you go." Troy growled. The nerd shivered and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a few dollars and dropped it all into Troy's waiting hand. The scared boy then ran away while Troy and his gang laughed in victory. Danny almost managed to sweep past the bullies when he heard one say, "Hey guys, look, it's the fresh meat Danny."

A bead of sweat trickled down Danny's temple as he watched the larger boys come toward him. Then Danny remembered.

 _Just do whatever you have to in order to run away._ Duncan had told him. Danny's legs were moving before he had even realized he was on the run. As the chase went on, Danny noticed there were practically no kids around. Looking back, he had lost sight of his pursuers. Danny's eyes went green as he became both intangible and invisible to fly up to the roof. Up there, Danny took several deep breaths after returning to normal.

He peered over the edge to see that Troy was searching angrily for him on the ground. _That's the funny thing about when you're looking for someone, you never look up._ Danny giggled. Danny didn't even notice that his hand was slowly pushing a piece of gravel toward the edge until it was too late. Danny ducked back behind the ledge but still heard the rock hit the cement next to Troy.

"The heck?" He heard him say.

"Bet its Fenton." A lackey suggested.

"Not even Duncan could've given us the slip and gotten up there that fast." Troy countered. Principal Dave's voice came out of nowhere, aimed at Troy.

"Alright Adams, who are you teasing this time?"

"No one. Can't a bunch of friends just hang out?"

"Outside the school between classes? Get to wherever you're supposed to be, young man."

Danny slowly and softly sighed. _Troy's a group bully_ , Danny mentally noted, _while Dash handles most things on his own. And yet, they aren't very different._ Danny laughed. The bell rang right next to him, making Danny jump so bad he almost shot the device. He peeked over the edge again to see only an empty sidewalk. He jumped from where he was down to the doors Troy and his pals had gone through. Danny froze when he saw Principal Dave's figure just barely within the glass doors, luckily turned away from him.

Danny walked up to the doors and opened them. Principal Dave whirled around to stare at Danny.

"And what are you doing?" Principal Dave questioned.

"Um, coming out of hiding?"

Principal Dave chortled. "Why are you asking me?"

"I have no idea. But I was hiding from Troy." Danny felt slightly embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. Here, I'll give you an excuse slip." Principal Dave pulled a pad and pen out from his suit's inner pockets and quickly wrote on the small sheet of paper. He then ripped it off the pad and handed it to Danny.

"Just don't take too long getting to class, okay?"

"Sure thing!" Danny promised. He began running yet again, this time in a better mood and ready for whatever Math was going to throw at him.

Danny inhaled sharply once exiting Math. He had not really been ready. _Pop quizzes suck._ He silently complained. Luckily, it was Lunch. Danny put his backpack in his locker, not exactly wanting to carry it around if Troy decided to come after him again. Once Danny had gone through the lunch line, grateful that this cook could make edible food, he sat down by himself.

"Hey Danny!" Isabel shook her hand wildly around in the air to help Danny find her. "Come sit with us!"

He could see that Jenna and Duncan were with her, though he hadn't met the other guy who sat with them. Danny picked up his tray and moved over to their table.

"Hi. I'm Kenny Rogers. Just call me Kenny." Kenny introduced himself.

"Danny. Guess you already knew that, right?"

"Yep. Isabel told us that you'd be joining our group for the dance." Kenny sounded like he was going to moan.

"What are you coming as?" Duncan took over.

"I'm planning on coming as a vampire." Danny answered.

"Sweet! I'm going as an Egyptian queen." Isabel grinned.

"I'll be a nymph. Dress and crown made of leaves and ivy. Plastic, of course." Jenna inserted.

"High quality mummy." Kenny mumbled.

"I think I'll simply go as a Kaiju. The real-deal Kaiju, if that wasn't obvious." Duncan smirked.

"I don't get it. I thought Kaiju were too big to fit inside the school." Danny said, raising his eyebrow.

"Wait, no one told you?" Jenna answered with her own question, completely in disbelief.

"Told me what?" Danny asked, finally remembering he had food to eat. The group looked at Duncan, who shrugged and calmly said, "Alright. Danny, I'm only half-human."

Danny spit his food back onto the tray and hurriedly wiped his mouth with a napkin.

"I had no idea!" Danny exclaimed.

"Nah, its fine. I'm half-Kaiju, if that wasn't clear." Duncan almost started laughing.

"So, how'd you become half-Kaiju?" Danny bluntly asked.

"What do you mean?" Duncan's turn for confusion.

"Like, were you born half-Kaiju or was there something that changed you?" Danny expounded.

"Oh. Born half-Kaiju. Mom's human, dad's Kaiju." Duncan explained.

 _Lucky duck._ Danny mentally cursed. Duncan broke Danny's thoughts by commenting, "You're taking this pretty well. Most people look at me like I'm going to destroy everything or even hurt them for no reason."

"I guess I'm just not like most people." Danny chugged his milk. _Should I tell them that I'm only half-human too?_ He debated internally. Troy's rough voice cut through Danny's conflicting emotions.

"Well, it's the table of outcasts!"

"Get lost, Troy." Duncan stood up, growling. It was a weird growl, much deeper than what a boy his age should be able to do. _Must be the Kaiju half._ Danny figured.

"Humph. King of Freaks." Troy growled back. But there was no hope for him to match Duncan's growl. Troy walked away, buddies in tow. Danny quietly thought, _If anyone's the king of freaks, it should be me. After all, I really am a King._

 ** _Bet none of you saw the Ghost King concept coming! Thanks so much for reading, I'll continue to try and upload as often as possible._**


	4. Chapter 3

**Firstly, thanks for the reviews!**

 **To Matt: No need to call me a moron, but I did at least plan on using a flashback method to recount your point. You'll just have to wait for later chapters.** **J**

 **Second, I'd like for everyone to pray that I don't get writer's block.**

 **Now go ahead and start reading!**

Thursday Afternoon.

It took a while, but Danny decided against telling Duncan and the others of his half-human status. _They've got their own problems to worry about, they don't need me to be another one._ He reasoned. _Also, if I did, Duncan might think I'm imposing on him. This is his hometown._ Now in his final class of the day, Danny watched the clock tick the minutes away and counted down until the bell would ring.

"Three….two….one." Danny whispered so softly only he heard himself. The bell erupted into a frenzy of excitement and all students jumped out of their seats. Danny rushed to his bus, which thankfully, wasn't anywhere close to being as cram packed as the one he would take back at Casper High. He sat toward the back, staring out the window. The bus eventually came to life and rolled away from the school. When he got back to the house, he opened the door to…nothing.

"Hello?" Danny called out, hoping someone would answer. Still nothing. Danny set his bag down by the front door and made his way to the living room. On the table, in the middle of the room, there was a note. Danny picked it up and read it.

 _Danny,_

 _Brandon and I have gone to take Katie and Max to their yearly check-up at the doctor. Don't eat too much, we'll be bringing back dinner. Stay safe!_

 _Allie._

Danny heaved a sigh of relief. _Home alone until they get back. Question is, what to do while I wait for them…_ He looked around. The house wasn't in its pristine, clean state like Allie usually had it.

"I'll clean!" Danny exclaimed to no one. "Goin' ghost!" He yelled, but not loud enough for anyone outside the house to hear. The white rings expanded and enveloped Danny, disappearing once they had finished their task. Danny leapt into the air, only to stop and say,

"What should I clean first?"

Danny flew through the house, stopping in the kitchen. The sink was filled with dirty dishes.

"And here's where I start." Danny chuckled, almost deviously. He shook his head and muttered, "I'm becoming more and more like the twins."

With that, Danny set to work. As he floated in front of the sink, he used his ghost tail to wrap around a large cup that held polished silverware. He used his telekinesis to send the cleaned plates to their spots in the cupboard while using his hands to furiously scrub the dirty ones. Following this pattern for thirty minutes, he finally finished. Danny wiped his forehead with his arm and then flew down to the basement.

"Woah. What hit this place?" Danny floated there with his jaw hanging open. Toys covered the entire floor and costumes of all shapes laid on top of the toys. There was virtually no space for walking, forcing Danny to remain hovering over the sea of fun. Along the edges of the room were shelves and drawers, the spots where the toys and clothes really belonged.

"Man, Katie and Max could have an entire fortress under all of this. There's no way I can clean up everything before they get back…" Danny trailed off, an idea entering his mind. "Unless, I clean it the way I do the lab."

He fired a plasma beam into the middle of the toys. They, the items that were hit, jumped into the air and landed neatly in their respective drawers. Danny grinned. "I'll be done in five minutes." Shot after shot blasted free from Danny's hands and the chaos that was the floor moved around as if alive. The carpet revealed itself, its color being a deep maroon. Danny stopped shooting and looked at a clock on the wall.

"Took two minutes. I am so good." Danny congratulated himself. His happiness was short lived. "Now what am I supposed to do to pass time?" He moaned. _How about your homework?_ His conscience came out of nowhere.

"How about I do something else?" Danny argued. His eyes snapped wide. "I'm such a goof. I'm arguing with myself." He slapped his hand against his face. He touched down on the surprisingly soft carpet to hear the garage door being opened. The white ring quickly passed over Danny as he ran up the stairs.

"Welcome back!" Danny greeted the family.

"Hi Danny!" The two children screeched and jumped on him. For once, Danny managed to remain standing instead of falling over. Katie and Max held on tightly via bear hug. Allie and Brandon walked through the garage door holding large bags from KFC.

"Alright kids, to the table." Brandon gestured the way with his loaded arm. Katie and Max raced each other while Danny stayed back.

"Here, let me carry some of those." Danny offered. Brandon said nothing as Danny grabbed a few bags from both Allie and Brandon and carried them to the table. Once Danny was what they thought out of earshot, Brandon whispered to his wife,

"I still find it hard to believe that no one's been looking for him. A kid like him can't be that easy to miss."

"I know. But here we are." Allie whispered back.

Danny winced, his super hearing allowing him to have heard it all. _I bet they do miss me. I wonder if it's been two months over there too._ He was silent for the remainder of dinner.

"I'll be doing my homework in my room." He told his foster parents after he cleaned up his dinner. Danny grabbed his backpack and closed his door behind him. He proceeded to lock it. Danny pulled the papers he needed from his bag and looked them over before deciding that homework wasn't going to happen right then. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. _I wonder…_ He began thinking. Danny opened his window and looked at the setting sun. The bright colors fought their way across the darkening sky while the moon rose just behind the mountains.

 _It couldn't hurt to go flying, would it?_ Danny wondered. He put on a light jacket. Then he turned the light in his room off and quietly crept out the window. He shut it softly, leaving a crack so he could get back in later. By now the streets were quiet and many lights within houses had gone dark. At that point he started walking. Soon he was on the outskirts of the city, facing the salt flats and the mountains with them.

Danny continued his trek until he had gotten behind the first of many rocks jutting out from the base of the mountains. There he turned into Phantom and rose high above the landscape. He soared into the clouds, dipping and diving through each one. His stresses seemed to drift away with each cloud he passed through. Danny closed his eyes, allowing himself to fall away from the clouds. The wind caused Danny's suit to flutter violently against his skin the longer he fell.

Danny opened his eyes and slowly evened himself out from the fall. He glided back to the edge of the city and landed. Danny turned back into Fenton and swiftly walked back home. On the way, he glanced at his watch. _That was really two hours long?_ Danny was baffled. He tip-toed up to his window and climbed in, careful not to make any noise. He slowly closed the window and locked it. The light suddenly flipped on, making Danny have a heart attack and have a slight seizure.

"I thought you were doing homework." Allie's stern voice was full of disappointment.


	5. Chapter 4

Danny sat on his bed, kneading his fingers awkwardly as Allie stared at him from the other end.

"What were you doing out for so long?" She tried to interrogate.

"I couldn't focus on my homework, so I went on a walk." Danny half lied.

The tension grew. Danny didn't dare meet Allie's eyes, lest he be reduced to ashes. He heard her give a sigh of her own before she said,

"I guess it didn't matter that much. Just tell me next time you decide to go out, promise?"

"I will." Danny promised. They ended with a hug and then Allie left Danny alone in his room. He looked at the homework again, figuring he could do it tomorrow.

Friday.

Once again, Danny was hiding. Oddly, this time it was just Troy who was hunting him down. The place Danny decided to hide was in the shower stalls in the boy's locker room. Danny froze when the doors opened.

"I know you're in here, pipsqueak!" Troy bellowed. Out of instinct, Danny became invisible while cowering in the stall. Troy's footsteps echoed from every which way as he searched the entire place for Danny. The curtains of unused stalls clanked open as Troy got closer to Danny's position. The curtain to Danny's stall flapped open. Danny stifled his breathing as Troy looked around angrily, around and through Danny.

Troy walked away muttering something under his breath. Troy left the locker room completely empty, allowing Danny to carefully poke his head out from the shower stall. Danny relaxed.

"That's pretty impressive. Troy even checked that stall." Kenny's voice spoke from behind Danny. Danny flipped out for a moment before hissing,

"You scared the daylights out of me!"

"Sorry. How'd you do it?" Kenny pried.

"It's hard to explain…" Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "Anyway, I've got to get moving. I'd rather look nice for the dance than arrive with a black eye." Danny took off, leaving Kenny alone in the locker room. Kenny watched the door close behind Danny long after Danny had left.

"Why does this feel like a case of déjà vu?" Kenny wondered aloud, treading his own path to the exit.

Friday Afternoon.

"It's a bit tight." Danny tugged at his bowtie. Despite Danny saying multiple times that he would do his own hair, Allie had taken over that job. She had slicked it back and pulled it into a ponytail.

"Oh, you're so picky." Allie came around front and loosened the bowtie. Danny took a deep breath now that he could.

"Aren't you a handsome vampire?" Allie stood back to make sure Danny looked nice. The black cape with a large collar enveloped most of the tuxedo, but only went down to Danny's knees.

"Yeah, yeah." Danny rolled his eyes and moved to pick up the fangs on his dresser. He stuffed them in his mouth and smiled.

"Still not wanting to wear the contacts?" Allie asked while holding the container. Danny stared at the case that contained red contacts. _Blood red eyes…_ Dan Phantom flashed across his vision and Danny violently shook his head.

"No, no, no. I'm good without them. Contacts irritate my eyes." Danny asserted. Allie shrugged and put the contacts on his dresser.

"Alright. Have a good time, Danny." Allie said and then hugged him. A car horn blared outside the house, signaling Danny's ride. Awaiting him was Margret, who was driving, Duncan, Isabel, Jenna and Kenny. Each already in costume, except Duncan, currently transformed into his Firebreather state.

Duncan sat up front with his mom, who had somehow become an adult chaperone for the dance. Jenna and Isabel sat in the middle row, talking about their costumes. Jenna's nymph outfit appeared as if the leaves and ivy were living and would move around if touched. The flowers that spotted her attire gave off an imaginary scent that Danny swore was real. Isabel's Egyptian queen robe was hand-made, by herself, using the descriptions and ancient pictures found online. Although from a different era, Isabel reminded Danny of a less-likely-to-kill-you version of Pandora.

In the very back was Kenny and Danny, having made barely any conversation. Kenny's mummy costume was indeed high-quality, down to giving off a small puff of powder when being hit with enough force. (Which Duncan had discovered and took advantage of for a while.)

"Hey Danny, I'm still curious about your hiding tactics earlier today. Care to tell me about it?" Kenny softly asked, careful not to attract the attention of the other peers.

"I can tell you, but you can't tell them." Danny whispered, pointing a thumb at the rest of the group.

"Why not?" Kenny inquired.

"You guys have enough to deal with already, I just don't want to be another problem." Danny explained. He took a deep breath and said, "I-I'm a…"

'We're here! Everyone pile out!" Margret instructed. With that, the moment was gone.

 _I'll just have to tell Kenny later._ Danny thought. Together they walked into the gym, where the dance was taking place.

"I'm glad all the construction was finished in time for this dance." Jenna commented.

 _Oh yeah, I was told the whole roof was torn off last time._ Danny quickly remembered. There were at least fifty other attendees already there, apart from volunteers and staff. The DJ was blasting start-up music to set the tone and just give everyone something to listen to while waiting for the party to actually begin.

It was almost fifteen minutes before the dance really started. Once it did though, everyone agreed that it was in full-swing and wouldn't stop. As for Danny, he just sat at a table with his friends, enjoying each other's company. Then Duncan and Jenna stood up to dance by themselves. Danny looked at his remaining peers. Isabel's smile became a neutral, thin line on her face. Kenny remained as he was. Danny was about to pick up where the conversation had left off when a cold burst of air escaped his lips.

 _Ghost?! Here, now?_ Danny panicked. "I've gotta use the bathroom. Be back in a bit." He excused himself and ran off. He could feel their confused stares as the distance between them grew. Danny pushed through the double doors leading out from the gym and made his way down the semi-filled hallway. He internally gagged at how many of the people in the hallway were making out.

Danny soon found an empty hallway where he could go ghost. After transforming, he went back to the gym and floated invisibly above the rippling crowd.

"There's another ghost nearby, Ellie." An old woman's voice in the rafters made Danny jump. He saw the three knitting ladies rocking in creaky chairs, talking among each other.

"I can feel it too, Carolyn. It's been some time since any other ghosts have been here." The ghost Danny assumed was Ellie replied.

"Come on, we're not that old." The third rasped.

"Gertrude, for the last time, two hundred and thirty six years is very old!" Carolyn pointed a bony finger at the lady.

Danny became visible and floated over to the elders. "Um, hi." He said, then slightly bowed.

"Oh look! The young man has manners." Ellie giggled.

"You simpleton bag of bones, Ellie! This is no ordinary young ghost." Gertrude scolded.

"Dearie me! It's King Phantom!" Carolyn cried out, almost dropping whatever it was she was knitting. The three ghosts attempted to get up, but Danny quickly waved his hands.

"No, no. Don't get up. I just wanted to meet the locals. How are you all this evening?" Danny tried to act like a gentleman, but didn't know if it was working.

"Could you repeat that, sweetie?" Gertrude asked gently.

"How are all of you?" Danny said louder.

"Well, we would usually be having a nice, quiet evening, but NO! Kids these days have to be rowdy with what they call music and they've got to have these overrated dances. In our day, if you didn't dance, you were dateless for a time." Gertrude went off.

"Not to mention the summoning circle one group has started on the roof!" Carolyn raged while knitting so roughly that Danny thought the string would tear.

"Wait, summoning circle?" Danny repeated.

"Yes, a summoning circle. Those brainless teens try to make one work every year." Ellie expounded, holding up a half finished scarf.

"Has there ever been a successful one?" Danny asked.

"Let me think…Hey Gertie! Did those kids ever actually summon something?" Carolyn pushed the question onto Gertrude.

"I think they did, just one year. Give this old woman a moment…" Gertrude stopped knitting and leaned her head back to the chair. Danny shivered when he clearly heard the ancient neck crackle and snap under the pressure.

"Excuse me, your highness, but how've you been?" Ellie smiled at Danny, showing him a surprisingly well-kept set of teeth. Her wrinkles made the smile even bigger.

"I've been doing alright. Would you happen to know how the Ghost Zone is doing?"

"What's that dearie?" Both Carolyn and Ellie put a hand up to their ears.

"What's been going on in the Ghost Zone?" Danny asked again.

"Everyone's been treating Skulker rather harshly and blames him for your disappearance. Who could've guessed that you'd be here?" Carolyn cackled. Gertrude snapped back into the moment to say,

"Oh yes! A few years ago a group of kids somehow managed to bring the Fright Knight here! Oh, how entertaining it was to see them so scared and the Fright Knight so confused! This was back when the Fright Knight was having a bit of a personal crisis, so he just stuck around for the remainder of Halloween, doing his thing before heading home."

"How'd he get back to the Ghost Zone?" Danny urgently inquired.

"Aw, fiddlesticks. There's a Kaiju of sorts outside." Ellie noticed. The three women vanished and it was at that moment Danny saw vibrations shaking the building. Below him, the crowd ran around wildly, searching for exits. Isabel, however seemed very interested in something she was holding. It looked like a weird frog. Curiosity got the better of Danny, compelling him to become invisible and take a closer look.

"Isabel, put that thing down!" Kenny yelled.

"But it's so hard to catch a Gomorradon without a Kaiju present!" Isabel argued.

"You two need to get out of here, now!" Duncan roared. That was all that was needed to get the two moving.

"Wait! Where'd Danny go?" Duncan called out.

"He went to the bathroom! We'll find him!" Isabel screamed back. She grabbed Kenny's wrist and took off.

 _You won't find me there._ Danny started to panic. On one hand, a Kaiju. On the other, his secret being blown at a very bad time. Danny rubbed his head. _What am I supposed to do?_


	6. Chapter 5

**And here it is- the chapter that changes the rating! Just up by one. :)**

 **To those who've been asking and to those who have silently been wondering, there will be flashbacks! Just wait, there is a plot in this story.**

 **Have I annoyed you with cliffhangers yet? *Evil laughter***

 **Alright, enough with fore notes! Begin the reading!**

Danny watched Isabel and Kenny run off, simultaneously watching Duncan prepare for battle.

 _Duncan knows what he's doing. He's fought Kaiju before, I'd just be in the way. Then again, could it hurt to have help and minimize area damage?_ Danny decided to fight. _Isabel and Kenny will just have to assume I got out and couldn't find them until after the battle._

Duncan proceed to leap through a window to engage the Kaiju. The massive being stood tall, its head matching a magnificent stag, antlers and all. However, it was hard to enjoy the majesty when the bottom half resembled a tarantula. Eight hairy legs, each hair like a supersized porcupine spine. Then the tail looked exactly like a mace, jagged bone sticking from every which way, making the death-ball even worse.

The Kaiju roared, (reminding Danny of Vlad's animal experiments,) and swung its tail at Duncan. He caught the giant bone ball and skidded back several dozen feet. Danny heard him groan in pain. _A sharp edge must've gotten his hand,_ Danny reasoned. The Kaiju quickly bucked at Duncan, sending a spine right along his skin. Well, scales. Duncan leaped high into the air and brought his fists down together on the Kaiju's back. The monster buckled under the force and caused a massive cloud of dirt to engulf them both.

Danny hovered just outside the cloud, waiting for his chance. An antler swooped out from inside the dirt storm and smacked Danny out of the sky. He created his own little crater in the ground.

"I pretty much asked for that." Danny muttered. He shook his head and rocketed back into the sky. By now the dirt storm was beginning to settle, allowing Danny to see the Kaiju and Duncan. Danny fired a large ecto beam at the beast's face. The Kaiju's head twisted partially around from the force. The monster brought its massive head back around to stare at the ghost child. Danny, for a moment, felt a loss of blood in his face before adrenaline brought it back. Duncan saw that the Kaiju was distracted and punched out one of the eight legs.

The Kaiju screamed and held the leg just off the ground while swinging the tail once more. Duncan jumped over the living mace and landed cleanly on the Kaiju's back. At once the creature began bucking and squealing. Danny flew underneath the Kaiju and shot ice at the joints of every limb. The monster roared and continued its attempt to jump around haphazardly, forcing Duncan to grab the loose skin on the Kaiju's back. Danny shot away from the beast and looked back. Again an antler came flying from seemingly nowhere and knocked Danny far from the battleground. Danny watched the ground come up to him and turned in time to land. He grunted, grabbing the ground while still moving at high speed, and feeling the unforgiving gravel tear at his suit and skin.

Once he stopped, Danny sighed and looked up at the Kaiju. It screeched as Duncan gripped its tail and began spinning. They got going faster and faster until Duncan finally let go, sending the Kaiju deep into the canyon lands. Its cries of helplessness faded away to the point where Danny couldn't hear it anymore, let alone see the monster. Danny flew over to Duncan's side and raised his hand.

"Up top!" Danny smiled.

"No thanks. Who do you think you are?" Duncan just about growled.

"A guy who helped you. What, would you have preferred if the fight had been longer and more damaging to its surroundings?" Danny's hand lowered with his voice. "You should at least say 'thanks' and leave it at that."

"You don't get it. The Kaiju race is going to think I'm getting weak by accepting help for simple battle! My dad will probably grind me into the ground for letting you help, while letting the Kaiju live, too." Duncan angrily stated.

"You're not gonna thank me, are you?" Danny asked.

"Nope. In fact, how about you go away now?" Duncan's low, pissed off voice resembled thunder.

"Fine. You're welcome for nothing!" Danny said and phased into the ground. He didn't come back up until he was on the other side of the evacuated student body, hiding behind a random baby blue car. He transformed into Fenton and walked into the crowd, scanning the bobbing heads for Isabel, Kenny and Jenna.

"Danny! There you are!" Jenna's voice found him. Danny turned around to be hugged by both Jenna and Isabel.

"Are you alright?! When we couldn't find you…" Isabel started, but trailed off. Kenny stood silently behind them, saying nothing.

 _Is Kenny getting suspicious of me?_ Danny thought as he attempted to study Kenny's face. Isabel quickly grabbed Danny's attention by saying, "Where were you? Also, did you see that guy who fought the Kaiju with Duncan?"

"Uh, I've been here looking for you guys since the Kaiju first showed up, but I never saw the person you're talking about." Danny answered.

"Aw. You should've seen him! Whoever he was, he knew exactly how to pull off a simple black and white uniform. Wish he'd told us his name though…" Isabel sighed.

"I bet his name has something to do with the insignia on his chest." Kenny interjected at last.

"I didn't get a good look at the insignia. It just looked like a white blob to me." Jenna commented.

"It was a specially designed letter D with a P in the middle." Duncan explained, landing next to them from the air.

"So… the initials DP. I wonder what it could stand for." Isabel finalized with a rather large exhale.

Saturday Night

Danny twisted around under his bedsheets. He glanced at his digital clock, which read, 12:56. _Once again, I can't sleep. Maybe another late night flight will help._ Danny reasoned. He quickly wrote a note saying he'd gone out for a walk and left it on his pillow. Danny, lazy and tired as he was, phased through the wall and the window. A cold breeze immediately met him and covered Danny with goosebumps. Danny began making his way down the street. Soon he let his thoughts wander as he walked by the dark houses and abandoned stores.

 _"_ _Are you sure about this boy? Complete knowledge of his origin, and yet there's nothing in any of the government files on him." The lady spoke in a hurried whisper._

 _"_ _It's better than nothing. What good are we if we don't at least care for him until someone takes him in?" A second woman replied quietly._

 _Danny sat outside the office, by the window, invisible to all around him. The women believed that Danny was in his room, or as he called it, his waiting cell. Never locked, but nothing to do within. Just a cot with several blankets and a simple dresser for clothes. Danny leaned himself against the wall._

 _"_ _I didn't chose this. But it's all I can do for now." Danny muttered. The dusk sky threatened to toss a shadow over Danny as the sun continued to fall. He listened to the children that played on the orphanage playground, oblivious to all time._

 _"_ _But still! There are few people who would foster a boy his age. A teenager of fourteen, unable to explain how he was separated from his family? Ha! My-"_

 _"_ _That's enough from you. Come, it's about time we get all the children to bed."_

 _Danny jumped down from his perch and phased into his 'cell.' He quickly became visible and laid on the bed._ I guess if things got worse, I could run away. There have to be some ghosts around here, right? _Danny thought. No idea where to go. No idea how to return to the Ghost Zone. No idea how long it would take._

Danny blinked. Once, then twice. Somehow he had already left the city and was standing on the edge of the canyon lands.

"Someone's out late."

Danny almost peed his pants before turning around.

"Duncan, you jerk! Did you teach Kenny that, or was it the other way around?" Danny yelped.

"I think I taught Kenny, if you're talking about scaring you. Danny, what are you doing at this time of night, way out here?" Duncan asked. He folded his arms in anticipation.

"I-uh, I…um… I couldn't sleep. It's been rough. I didn't expect to end up outside the city, though."

 _Lair._ Danny's conscience scolded him. _Shut up, it's only a half-lie!_ Danny grimaced to himself before thinking, _I'm arguing with my own mind. This is getting ridiculous._

"Ha-ha." Duncan chuckled lightly. "Sure about that? Your face is saying otherwise."

"Oh, no! It's not that, I'm just thinking about how Allie will react if she finds out I left the house again." Danny smoothly lied a second time.

"Allie, you mean your mom?"

"Foster mother, but yeah."

Silence entered the fray for several minutes before Danny broke it.

"What brings you out here anyway?"

"OH." Now it was Duncan's turn to stutter. "I-I, uh, um, I…didn't…couldn't…I, ARGH! I was restless and saw you walking down the street, so I followed you."

"Restless? As in couldn't sleep either, so you saw me and followed me because…?"

"I dunno, curiosity? How often do you see a friend walking down the street in the dead of night and not wonder what they're up to?"

"Ok, you've got me there. I think it's time we both head home. See you Monday?"

"See you Monday."

 **I should mention here that I have no freaking clue how foster care works. BUT! The story shall continue!**


	7. Chapter 6

**So, how are you all liking it so far? You can tell me once you've finished this chapter. :)**

Monday.

Danny pushed the locker door shut. He proceeded to rest his head against it. He took a deep breath and turned to his left a little. Duncan was right there, standing next to him.

"Ha. Didn't get me this time." Danny smiled. The bags under his eyes tingled with the fire that comes with having little to no sleep.

"Dude, you okay? You look like someone pulled you out of a coffin after, like, two weeks." Duncan tilted his head slightly with the concern.

"I'm fine. Just… haven't been sleeping well lately." Danny said. Last night there had been a ghost, just a resident.

 _"_ _Excuse me, who are you?" Phantom had asked._

 _"_ _I am Walter! Aren't you King Phantom?" Walter squinted. Middle aged, extremely thick glasses. Walter wore a robe, as if he had just woken up that morning. "By golly, you are! Sorry if I came off as rude, your highness." The man bowed._

 _"_ _Don't worry about that. Uh, how are you tonight?" Phantom scratched the back of his head. In Walter's hand, a coffee cup materialized, steaming._

 _"_ _I'd reckon I'm doing just fine. What brings the almighty ghost of ghosts out at this time of night, if you don't mind me asking?" Walter took a sip of his drink._

 _"_ _Ghost sense. Figured I should meet the locals. How many ghosts live around here?" Danny asked, shaking his head to fight a bit of sleepiness._

 _"_ _Shucks, I'd guess there's about thirty of us here and there in this city. Not as many as you're probably used to, but it's right plenty for us citizens."_

 _"_ _Wow. Then again, I'm the only permanent ghost resident where I'm from. Plenty of visitors, but it's just me."_

 _"_ _Oh! Then, more than what you're used to, eh?" Walter gasped. "Don't you fret, your kingly-ship, none of us ghosts are likely to harm a fly. Who else have you met?"_

 _"_ _Other than you, I met Ellie, Carolyn and Gertrude. The ladies that haunt the school?"_

 _"_ _Fine women, those girls. A bit rambunctious, but they're sweethearts, aren't they?"_

 _"_ _Certainly. Listen, I've got to go. Need to sleep and all that." Danny changed the topic. He had a feeling Walter was the kind of guy to talk forever._

 _"_ _Oh, I understand completely! Well, if you ever need anything, just drop on down to my home. There's a small cavern underneath this here neighborhood, which is dangerous, but I keep it from collapsing and taking the houses with it. Night, your highness!" With that, Walter melted into the asphalt._

"Danny, hello? Danny." Duncan was waving his hand in front of Danny's face. Danny quickly blinked hundreds of times and shook his head.

"What? Sorry."

"I was trying to tell you that we've got company. Haven't seen us, but company." Duncan scowled and looked at Troy, along with his gang.

"Aw man. Let's hide." Danny whispered.

"Me, hide? You do whatever you want, but there's no way I'm turning tail before confrontation." Duncan asserted. Danny wanted to slap himself. _Danny Phantom, King of all Ghosts, suggesting he hides? From a simple bully? I'd be disgraced if anyone heard about this._

"Ugh, you know what? I'll stick around. Just in case." Danny pulled himself together, standing straight. At that moment, Troy made eye contact with both of them.

"Would you look at what the freak dragged in? Bet you guys that our Kaiju buddy will use the new kid like a toy." Troy taunted. His friends laughed.

"Get lost, Troy. No one needs you around here." Duncan placed a hand on Danny's shoulder.

"What, worried I'll play with him myself?"

"Danny's my friend, nothing lower." Duncan growled.

"Besides Troy, I trust Duncan. He'd never do anything like that." Danny agreed.

"Aw, yuck, freak love." Troy gagged.

"When I'm done with you-" Duncan started walking toward Troy, but Danny grabbed his shoulder. Danny shook his head in a silent disapproval.

"Seriously Troy, get out of here!" Isabel's voice came from behind Danny.

"Please do." Jenna, at Isabel's side, added. Kenny was with them, but said nothing.

"Fine! But some of you are overdue for punishment!" Troy walked away angrily, plowing through a few of his own friends before they joined him.

"Jerks." Duncan hissed once they were long gone.

"If it makes you happy, I've got some news that could turn your day around." Isabel sang, holding up a dusty book.

"How is a rotting book gonna make anything better?" Danny complained for Duncan.

"For starters, there's a summoning circle that can takes nearby ghosts and puts them in the circle so you can communicate with them." Isabel summed up. Danny had to stop himself from choking on air, while making it look like nothing had happened.

"So, how's it work?" Kenny asked.

"Easy. You just make the circle, drawn in here, using normal salt and say the name of the ghost you want to talk to." Isabel explained.

 _If that's the case, then I won't have to worry about being summoned._ Danny relaxed.

"I still don't get how this will make our day." Duncan said, while folding his arms.

"If we do this right, we can summon a ghost and ask it about our friend from the dance." Jenna finished.

"Hold on, what makes you think that nutcase is a ghost?" Duncan questioned. At 'nutcase', Danny's eyes flashed green with anger.

"Because of his abilities! That, and what I've seen online from ghost-ologists. A lot of them agree that this guy is a ghost." Isabel squealed.

"Okay then. When will we do this?" Kenny asked in his usual, hushed manner.

"Meet at my place at about ten tonight. I'll have all the salt we need." Isabel smiled and winked, which created a ball of ice in his stomach.

Monday Night.

Danny crept out his window. Another note rested on his pillow. This time, Danny opted to wear a hoodie to conceal his face, in the scenario of everything going wrong. Somehow the city was quiet already, except the headlights visible from miles away. Danny scanned the area around him before turning invisible and jumping into the air. It took only minutes for Danny to reach Isabel's house.

Her house was more than Danny expected. Large, yellow and boasting, 'I've got money.' Easily three stories tall, with a balcony for each room higher than the ground. Covering the yard were bushes and trees that defied the desert surrounding them. Looking back at the balconies, Danny saw one on the far side of the house that had a knotted rope running down to the cement. Danny landed just on the inside of the small fence and returned to normal after making sure no one would see.

"Isabel? Are you here?" Danny loudly whispered. No response. He headed over to the rope before trying again. "Isabel? Hello? Anyone there?"

"Danny! Over here!" Jenna answered him in the same, hushed tone. He saw her waving her hand from behind a large bush toward the backyard fence. He tiptoed along the edge of the house until he reached the corner. A sinking feeling entered his gut as he slowly peered around the corner.

 _Fan-freaking-tastic. A guard dog._ Danny's thoughts matched his failing confidence as he watched the Doberman lightly slumber next to the back door. He looked over to where Jenna had been, only to see her face overcome with worry at the potential horror. Danny could finally see Duncan and Isabel next to Jenna, same horrified faces. He could only guess that Kenny was with them.

"I could try going around front and meet them after walking the perimeter." Danny muttered. "But it would be so much faster to cross the dog yard." He looked at the dog again. The Doberman continued to snore as it rolled onto its back.

"I'm going to cross this yard, whether the dog likes it or not." Danny gulped and tried to gather his confidence. He glanced at his friends and motioned his plan to follow the fence furthest from the dog before going to where they were. They nodded and showed him their crossed fingers.

Danny crossed the divide between the house and the fence and began his trek. Step by step. Soft, controlled breath after long exhale. Repeat. Danny was only a third of the way across when Jenna screamed. The dog barreled over and perked right up. Danny looked for his friends, but their heads were gone. _One of them must've clamped a hand over Jenna's mouth._ Danny froze when he heard the growling.

"I am truly and utterly screwed." Danny's voice cracked.


	8. Chapter 7

**Holy wow! I never expected this story to go so far in such a short time. Thank you all so much for the reviews! And to those who remain silent... I hope you've been enjoying the story! (Starts wondering who fangirls/boys when they read this...)Now, for what you've been waiting for: READ!**

Danny moved his head slowly around to meet the dog's death glare. The beast growled endlessly, almost never taking a breath. It stalked toward him, a large distance still to cover. Danny didn't budge. His mind was racing, trying to think of every possible escape without blowing his identity.

 _Running? I'll be caught long before I reach the back fence. Jump the fence next to me? If I can jump it, so can the dog. Hold still? It's still coming. Call for help? They won't reach me in time, also, they'll be mauled too. Except maybe Isabel, it's her dog. Assuming it recognizes her in time. What can I do? What can I do?_ Danny continued to panic through every scenario. The dog barked, snapping Danny's focus.

Then Danny smirked. _Idea._ His eyes blazed their radioactive green, boring into the dog's glare. It stopped advancing. Danny allowed his own growl to escape his throat, scowling and continuing his onslaught of visual daggers. The dog whined and tucked its tail between its legs, backing up slowly before turning and howling for the safety of its cage. Danny's eyes returned to their normal baby blue as Danny turned away to run for the safety of his friends and the fence.

They jumped the slightly higher fence as they saw Danny coming. Duncan stayed back to help Danny over, which meant locking his hands together and preparing to catapult Danny over. Danny's foot entered Duncan's hands and Danny soared above the fence. He enjoyed it for a moment, before realizing how high Duncan had thrown him. Danny's arms became pinwheels as he fell, stopping when he face planted the dirt.

"So, so, so, sorry dude!" Duncan apologized as he cleared the fence himself.

"No, you're fine." Danny's muffled and hurt voice came up from the soil. "Speaking of apology, what made Jenna scream?" Danny requested as Jenna and Kenny helped him up.

"There was a spider the size of a nickel in the bush!" Jenna yammered with a slight blush. That's when Isabel started her own ramble.

"I'm such a moron! I should've taken care of Hoover long before anyone got here, or at least told you guys about him! Ugh, I was too into our plans, now look what I've done…"

"Hoover… you mean the dog?" Jenna stopped Isabel.

"Yeah. Hoover the guard dog. It's still my fault! I didn't tell Danny where to meet us and look at what almost happened!" Isabel was almost crying.

"Isabel, it's not your fault. If anything, it's all our fault for not passing the word to Danny." Duncan comforted her.

"You got the book and the salt, right?" Kenny asked. Isabel's face changed from one of regret to even more horror.

"Whoops…"

"Alright, Isabel, where are we headed?" Duncan asked once she returned with the necessary items. _At least the dog left her alone._ Danny mumbled in his thoughts. Hoover had rather escorted Isabel than anything else.

"You'll see. Follow me!" Isabel winked.

They walked for about twenty minutes, up and down multiple hills, along a dirt path outside the city limits. Danny was starting to sweat in his hoodie, despite the cool night air. He paused to take a look at the city. Street lights here and there illuminated the otherwise dark sidewalks and asphalt. With the rest of the city so dark, the neon bright 24/7 gas station seemed misplaced. Danny giggled at the thought.

"We're here!" Isabel announced. Danny turned around and ran to catch up, only to stop with everyone in front of an abandoned farm house. Next to it was a corral, which was totally falling apart. The moon did justice by scarcely illuminating the run down building, forcing an eerie feel to wash over the teens.

"This is the perfect place because…?" Danny uttered his question.

"Because it's said that this is where a ghost presumably lived! Don't worry, I've got the name and everything. Apparently this guy died from an early morning accident when his kids wanted to surprise him by having the morning chores done. They tried to work the tractor, but it ended up rolling away. Their dad came out of the house to grab the morning paper, but got crushed by the tractor instead."

"Ooo..." Duncan winced. "Talk about a bad Monday morning."

"Let's get started!" Isabel cheered. When she meant 'let's', it became 'her' because she was the only one who knew what she was doing. Everyone else simply cleared a space for her and stayed out of the way. Isabel quickly had the circle sprinkled out. Danny took one look at the circle to realize that this would actually work. _I've seen this circle before. I think it was in either my castle's library or Frostbite's study._

"Sit down around the circle, perfectly spaced out, please." Isabel commanded, doing the same. They followed her orders.

"You ready?" Isabel grinned maliciously. Danny glanced at his friends, unsure of what would happen.

"I call upon the powers between that of life and death! I ask that for which I cannot do alone! I ask for the privilege of speaking to whom is long dead! I wish to speak once more to the ghost of Walter Cunningham! Obey my desires and bring him to me!" Isabel chanted.

 _Wait, Walter Cunningham? Is that…_ Danny thought as he watched the salt glow with a soft green. The light rose high above their heads as moonlight poured into the middle. All at once the light vanished to reveal a translucent figure, holding a coffee mug. Danny grabbed his hood and flung it over his head.

"Well I'll be! If it isn't my old home!" Walter whistled. Everyone stared at the ghost man with jaws wide open. Jenna was the first to snap out of her daze.

"Hello, Walter! Mind if we ask you a few questions?"

"Hmm? Oh yes, of course! Ask away! Mind telling me all of your names first?" Walter turned to face Jenna first, making it clear he wanted her name first.

"Uh, I'm Jenna." She gulped.

"Well met, Jenna! I'm Walter Cunningham, resident ghost of this fine community. What did they change the name of this town to again?" Walter zoned out into his own world, subconsciously taking a sip of his coffee.

"Jenna, we're not supposed to give our names to the ghost!" Isabel hissed. Jenna paled at her mistake. Walter heard her and turned to face Isabel.

"Don't you worry, little missy! I'm not that kind of ghost, and I darn hope to never be!" He proudly announced.

"Alright Walter, ready for our questions?" Duncan asked.

"But we didn't finish introductions!" Walter whined, taking a few gulps of coffee afterwards.

"Alright, fine! I'm Duncan, that's Isabel, that's Kenny, and that's Danny. We good?" Duncan pointed a finger at each person in succession.

"Yep, we- wait a minute! Did you say Danny?" Walter gasped in excitement. The ghost turned to look at Danny, who greeted him with a green-eyed glare. Danny kept his hand down at his side, but motioned for Walter to knock it off.

"Hmm, never mind. Thought it was somebody I knew, yes I did." Walter quickly got the message.

"Question time! Walter, how many ghosts are in this city?" Isabel began.

"About thirty." Walter kept his answer short, drinking some more coffee.

"How powerful are these ghosts?" Kenny asked.

"Just strong enough to do the basics. Disappear, re-appear, fly, intangibility. Look scary when they're mad, that sorta stuff."

"Okay… what about ghosts outside of this city?" Isabel inquired.

"I'm not too rightly sure. 'Course, there's the Ghost Zone." Walter said.

"The Ghost Zone?" Duncan repeated.

"Yep! Place where every ghost lives if not in the real world." Walter sighed and continued, "The swirling green clouds can make anyone feel at home! Then again, the swirling green everything makes me slightly dizzy if I look too long."

"What kind of ghosts are in the Ghost Zone?" Jenna dug her nails into the dirt next to her.

"Ah, the ghosts of the zone are the powerful ones! They can do everything, too! Like control the environment 'round them, shoot fire and ice, stuff like that. OH! Some ghosts can transform into something else, but I hear it takes a lot of concentration and energy." Walter began rambling.

"Okay, okay! We get it. Is there an order or government in the Zone?" Duncan leaned forward in anticipation.

"Each section of the Zone is different, see. So you can have cavemen tribes right next to modern day order. These 'kingdoms', if you will, have different laws. You'd understand that ghosts tend to stay with the time they lived in. But, there is one system over the entirety that is the Zone. That is of our single Ghost King." Walter stopped there, looking at each teen for dramatic effect. However, he did not continue.

"Well? What's he like?" Kenny finally snapped.

"First, I'd have to explain a bit of history. You kids ready for a quick lesson?" Walter's turn to ask a question. They all nodded, Danny having done nothing, not moving or speaking.

"I'll have you know I had to have this story told to me by other ghosts. Ahem." Walter cleared his non-existent throat and began.

"Very well. It was before most of the ghosts that remain in the zone, close to the beginning of time itself. The first Ghost King was Pariah Dark. He took over with virtually no resistance, being enhanced by his connections to the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire. Soon there were ghosts that would not take his tyrannical rule anymore and, together, sealed him in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. Millenniums passed. Some idiot in the pursuit of power released Pariah and caused a good portion of the Ghost Zone to be destroyed in Pariah's waking path. It was at this time a champion stepped forward- a ghost that did not live in the Zone- and fought Pariah. The champion was successful in sealing Pariah back in his sarcophagus. Some time passed after this historical event, that the ghosts finally concluded that the hero, Danny Phantom, should be crowned as the new King of all Ghosts." Walter concluded. He inhaled a large portion of his coffee before he bowed and anticipated the reactions of the teens.

"That's…actually pretty cool." Kenny admitted.

"I would've never guessed that ghosts have a history all their own!" Jenna exclaimed.

"I'm impressed, that's for sure. But how does this explain what Danny Phantom is like?" Isabel asked.

"From what I told you, he's a hero. A big heart, knowledgeable, knows his way around in a fight, and is only a kid. Specifically, a teenager like yourselves." Walter answered. Danny blushed and tried to keep a straight face as his friends were dumbstruck.

"Holy crap. No older than us, huh? That'd be like Duncan fighting his dad and winning." Kenny commented, earning a visual dagger from Duncan.

"Does he look anything like this?" Jenna suddenly asked, pulling out from her pocket a folded piece of paper. She unfolded it and handed it to Walter.

"That's a fairly good sketch, Miss Jenna. And yes, that is His Highness, Danny Phantom." Danny fought to contain his laughter once his friends realized what they were up against- or rather, what they had unknowingly befriended.

"Will that be all for tonight?" Walter bowed again, then straightening to drain his cup and holding it upside down as if expecting more to fall out.

"Yes, thank you for your time, Mr. Cunningham." Jenna tipped her head. Walter waved good-bye and melted out of view. _If you ever need me, you know where to find me!_ Walter's words from the previous night spoke themselves in Danny's mind.


	9. Chapter 8

**I can't believe I forgot to tell all of you that PP never happened! I swear, this memory of mine forgets the little things, which isn't too good for a writer... Anyway, hope you're all still enjoying this! I'm starting to get ideas for other DP crossovers, so there's a good chance this won't be Danny's only other-worldly visit!**

 **To the story! Read!**

Tuesday, Lunch.

Everyone but Isabel sat at their usual table, eating their lunch. Until Isabel came out of nowhere and slammed books and papers onto the table.

"I've done some extensive research on our Phantom friend!" She proclaimed, but not loud enough for neighboring students to hear. All but Danny leaned in to hear her words.

"We already know his title, and at least we know what the insignia means now. The DP on his chest? 'Danny Phantom,' duh. But, there's practically nothing on his past life. Nothing about who he was when he was living."

 _Excuse you, I'm still living._ Danny provided his snarky comment to no one.

"Did you find anything at all?" Kenny pulled the trigger.

"I did! I had to summon several different ghosts last night, after our Walter encounter. But, I couldn't summon Phantom himself, so clearly he changed his name after he kinda died." Isabel ranted.

 _Just changed the last name, heh._ Danny smirked. He lost his grin when it finally clicked that she had been asking other ghosts.

"Wait, 'kinda' died?" Duncan hesitantly inquired.

"I got one ghost to admit to me that he's only half-ghost. Meaning he's also human! Just like you, Duncan, being only half-human." Isabel explained. Danny gulped.

"I'm pretty sure that's the only thing we have in common." Duncan grumbled. "But, that means… I'm not alone." Duncan's face grew soft as this idea settled in his mind.

"Exactly. Based off of your abilities, we can assume that Phantom has a different form, slightly more human, of course." Isabel twirled a pencil she pulled from oblivion. Danny side glanced at his friends, but only Kenny made eye contact. He seemed to be putting two-and-two together…

"Hold up, how'd a half-ghost become ruler of all ghosts?" Jenna threw her question out to anyone to answer.

"Like Walter said, he earned his title by defeating the previous king in battle." Kenny reminded them.

"But what makes a half-ghost more powerful than a full ghost?" Duncan wondered aloud.

"Maybe it's the human half that enhances his determination as a ghost. Kind of like how Duncan retains all of his human self in his Kaiju form." Danny shyly suggested.

"It would make sense." Jenna agreed. Duncan stared at Danny. To break the awkwardness between them, Danny picked up his forgotten sandwich and stuffed it in his mouth.

"We meet again, freak and company!" Troy's voice spoke from directly behind Danny. A large hand slapped Danny's back, making him choke on the bread. Danny managed to swallow it before anyone had to do the Heimlich.

"Not now, Troy. Go bug someone else." Jenna waved her hand dismissively.

"Alright…" Troy grinned and regarded his friends before saying, "We'll bug Fenton!" At that moment, Troy grabbed the back of Danny's collar and yanked him out of his chair, quickly tossing him on the floor.

"Troy, that's enough from you!" Duncan yelled. Troy's gang grabbed Danny's limbs and carried him out of the cafeteria at top speed. Danny screamed and struggled to break free, but the posse was dead set on whatever it was they had planned. It wasn't long before the group reached the football field. One of Troy's friends was already there, waiting with rope in hand.

 _Since when did bullies move to straight up execution?!_ Danny thought and panicked. He looked back to the school. His friends were nowhere in sight.

"Hold him still!" The one who had been waiting told the others. They forced Danny's hands to his sides and kept them there while the rope was encircled around him again and again. Tighter and tighter the bonds got until Danny could barely breathe.

"Aw crud guys, Principal incoming!" One of the boys informed.

"Fine, gag him on the way, then!" Another boy said. A bandana slipped around Danny's face and prevented Danny from making any more audible noise. The bullies carried Danny to the rear parking lot and popped a car trunk open.

"Stay here until after school, got it?" The largest of the group told him. They shoved Danny inside and shut the trunk, enclosing Danny in darkness.

Danny listened to them run away. His eyes slowly adjusted to the confined area, allowing him to see that he had a decent amount of space to shift around in.

 _What now? It'll be forever before anyone finds me. Gotta get out of this one myself._ Danny barely heard the bell ring, signaling the end of lunch and thus the allotted time for his friends to search for him without getting in trouble. _I bet my Ghostly Wail can do the trick. Bust the gag and the trunk at the same time!_ Danny wiggled his hands. No go. _Have to admit, they did a good job. But, they should've ghost-proofed everything._ Danny smiled as much as he could with the bandana in the way.

He took as deep a breath as he could in the restrictive rope. He paused for a moment before letting loose the Ghostly Wail. The bandana snapped cleanly in half within the first second, sending a sudden blast of energy into the trunk, denting it. Danny continued screaming, which caused the entire trunk lid to creak open inch by inch until it gave in and flew completely off the car. Danny stopped and gasped, allowing the spent energy to begin its recharge cycle. The trunk lid clashed on the asphalt, steaming from the energy used on the poor metal. He pulled himself up into a sitting position, where he could see that no one was looking for him in the parking lot.

Intangibility instantly freed Danny from the ropes. With a victorious sigh, Danny rubbed the spots where the rope had been able to make friction. His skin was red in various places, but nothing serious. _If I see those jerks, I might just turn them into ghosts myself._ He growled alone. Danny did his best to relax his body, but with little result. He walked away from the damage and made his way up to the building.

When he reached for the door handle, he stopped. _I might run into Troy and company before I meet with anyone else._ Danny looked around. Still no one in sight. He flew up to the roof and laid on the sun-bleached gravel, resting partially on the edge. Danny's eyes absorbed the heat from the sun, causing him to gently close his eyes.

"What are we doing in class?! We need to find and help Danny!" Duncan quietly hissed to Jenna.

"We can't do anything without getting in trouble ourselves. Let Principal Dave and the School Officer handle this." She calmly replied. Duncan groaned and put his head on his desk, making it clear that he was pouting. Duncan moved only his eyes to glare at Troy. The kid put his life on the line to ensure the escape of his comrades.

"Danny's our friend. He'd do the same if it were one of us." Duncan muttered. Troy seemed pleased that whatever plan he had going was working. One of his followers walked through the door and sat down next to Troy, fist-bumping as he did so. Duncan had to suppress a Kaiju-level growl. The teacher marked Troy's friend tardy and resumed the lesson.

Duncan, however, turned his head on his side to stare at Danny's empty seat.

"Mrs. Ebban, may I use the bathroom?" Duncan called out as he raised his arm.

"Please hurry, Mr. Rosenblatt." She sighed. Duncan was out of the room in moments.

"Hurry is what I plan to do." Duncan said to himself. He pulled out his cell phone and began texting as he moved through the otherwise silent hallway.

" _Kenny, you there?_ "

" _Like always, dude. What's up?_ "

" _Meet me in front of the boy's bathroom, west side of the school._ "

" _Got it. Be there shortly._ "

Duncan found himself already there and only waited for a few minutes when Kenny got there.

"We're looking for Danny, aren't we?" Was the first thing Kenny said and asked.

"Yep. Let's check the parking lots first." Duncan suggested with a smile.

"We're going to get in trouble for practically ditching class." Kenny warned.

"Nah. It's just a very long bathroom break." Duncan dismissed. Together they walked through the side doors of the building and stealthily got closer to the cars. They dove behind a car on the end and peered over it. Principal Dave and several officers were doing the same thing, checking cars for signs of Danny.

"Dude. Let's check the back." Kenny whispered.

"Yeah, let's do that." Duncan quickly agreed. The two raced away from the scene and reached the rear parking lot easily.

"What are you two doing out of class?" A voice made them jump.

"Hey-a 'Blitz.'" Duncan grimaced with a smile and turned to face the man. He stood over them with folded arms and an annoyed look on his face.

"Well?" Blitz impatiently asked again.

"No point in lying. We're looking for Danny Fenton." Duncan answered, since Kenny was suddenly mute.

"Why?" Blitz inquired.

"You must've missed it. He was pretty much jumped during lunch, carried off and he didn't show up to class after."

"Oh boy." Blitz sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, for your sakes, I'll help you."

"I don't think that's necessary…" Kenny squeaked. He pointed into the lot, showing both Duncan and Blitz, a badly messed up car. Pieces of it were still steaming.

"What the heck?" Duncan wondered aloud as they approached the wreckage. Blitz bent down and ran his fingers over what must've been the trunk's lid.

"Whatever happened here, took some serious energy to do. This is just about equal to a small rocket's damage. Or about the equivalent of one Kaiju's foot." Blitz identified after a moment. Duncan reached inside the trunk and pulled out a ripped bandana.

"What's that?" Kenny asked the obvious.

"Hey kid, you could try using your Kaiju nose, if you want to." Blitz suggested, still bent down on one knee to closer examine the wreckage. Duncan held the cloth close to his face and inhaled. Danny's scent that resembled cinnamon wafted up into Duncan's mind. Duncan closed his eyes and said,

"Yeah, Danny was here." Duncan paused to look at the bandana, "It's weird, though. There's something else on this cloth, but it's not from Troy or his friends."

"What do you mean, kid?" Blitz pushed Duncan further.

"I dunno, like, whatever it was Danny used to break free. It almost smells like really dusty slime, I have no idea what else to compare it to."

"Really? Dusty slime?" Kenny chuckled.

"Here, you smell it!" Duncan tossed the bandana to Kenny. He caught it and took a whiff.

"That's really crazy. I can smell it too, so it's not just your Kaiju nose."

"Give it to me. I'll send it to Dr. Pytel, she'll get us results." Blitz extended his hand. Kenny placed the cloth in his hand.

"Now then. We know where Danny's been. Not where he is." Duncan said.

"What are you, stupid? You just used one of your senses to pick up a fresh scent. Now follow it." Blitz snapped. Duncan glared at him, but did it anyway. The trail led back to the school.

"Huh. Did he go back inside?" Duncan asked aloud. No response from Blitz or Kenny as they all walked up to the doors. Duncan sniffed the air again, only to be more confused.

"Straight up…?" He tilted his head in confusion. "Danny?" He called out. He heard movement on the roof. Duncan changed to his Firebreather form and flew up to Danny.

"Danny! Are you okay?" Duncan raised Danny into a sitting position. Danny rubbed his eyes.

"I was fine until you woke me up…" Danny yawned. Duncan picked Danny up and jumped back down to where Blitz and Kenny waited. There he set Danny down.

"Son, you alright?" Blitz asked him. Danny nodded. "Tell you what," Blitz put a hand on Danny's shoulder, "I'll help you get checked out and get you home. You've had enough for one day." Danny didn't argue.

Tuesday Night.

Danny was finally alone after a whole afternoon of worried Allie not leaving his side. The moon was the only source of light for his room, which comforted him, oddly enough. The silence was nice too. Then his phone buzzed. A text from Kenny, of all people.

" _It took me long enough, but I figured it out, Danny."_

Danny raised an eyebrow.

" _Figured what out?_ "

" _Your hiding abilities in the locker room the other day, always escaping beat-downs from Troy, winning a staring contest with a mad dog, bursting free from a locked car trunk._ "

Now Danny was worried.

" _And that means?"_

" _That I'm a moron for not seeing that you are Danny Phantom sooner."_

Danny had a short seizure on his bed before replying.

" _Please, whatever you do, don't tell anyone!_ "

" _Why not? It all makes sense now. Troy would be less likely to bully you for having the power to knock him off the face of the planet._ "

" _I've got my reasons, Kenny. Besides, it's better that this remains secret._ "

" _Okay. So… King of all Ghosts, huh?_ "

Danny smiled.

" _Yeah. When you think about it, Duncan's not even on my level. Prince of Kaiju, not King Already._ "

" _Ha. LOL. Better not tell Duncan that one._ "

" _Let's talk about this later, face-to-face. I'm tired and really need to get the sleep I've been missing._ "

" _Fine. See you later, 'Highness.'_ "

 **How's that for an ending?**


	10. Chapter 9

**Whew! It seems like I'm slowing down a bit. Don't worry though; I won't stop! If you haven't already, if you are interested, try reading my other cross-over: Soul Eater X Young Justice. It's basically the same deal, but different characters of course.**

 **Thanks for all the reviews!**

 **To both Bananarock509 and Death of Snipers: Yeah, I guess the wail was overkill, but I felt like it needed to happen. :)**

 **Ok! This A/N is long enough. READ!**

Wednesday.

Danny didn't even bother going to class. He dumped his backpack in his locker and left campus. Danny found a place behind the garbage bins for the building next to the school to become invisible and run. Danny made a beeline for the canyon lands and didn't stop until he couldn't see the city anymore. He sat down, panting, and looked up to the sky.

Eternity passed before Danny could breathe normally again. He stood up, knees shaking.

"I just want to go home!" Danny screamed. His hand built up green energy and he shot the ecto beam into a rock, shattering the formation completely. Danny felt a hot tear fall down his cheek as he prepped even more energy. Danny howled as he fired ecto ball after ecto ball at the earth around him. Finally, it all stopped. The dust from landslides settled on the newly porous ground. Danny huffed and started allowing himself to calm down.

"Feel any better there, Danny?" Kenny asked, peeking out from behind one of the few last standing rocks.

"A little. Why are you here?" Danny sighed.

"I don't know if it's weird, but I see a lot of what happens in the school that most people wouldn't. Like you walking in, leaving your backpack and leaving." Kenny answered.

Danny chuckled. "I guess it's not that weird." Danny paused, then said, "I do remember promising to tell you what you want to know last night. So go ahead and ask."

"If you're cool with that, then, how'd you become half-ghost?" Kenny hesitantly asked. Danny rubbed the back of his neck before saying,

"Unlike Duncan, I became a halfa through an accident. My parents built a thing called a ghost portal, but it didn't work in the beginning. My friends convinced me to go inside of it to try and fix it. I went into the portal and accidently pressed a button on the wall that turned the device on. I don't remember much, but I came out as Danny Phantom."

"Dude. What do you remember?"

"Just pain, along with the color of green, but just a whole lot of pain." Danny grimaced and shuddered.

Okay. Changing topic. Um… how'd it go at first?"

"I struggled to control it. Walking through vending machines, falling through floors and chairs, dropping stuff I was holding, losing my pants, and at one point I unintentionally overshadowed a person. It's a miracle nobody picked up on it." Danny laughed.

"What's 'overshadowed' mean?" Kenny inquired.

"Taking over a person's body and turning them into a puppet."

"Neat, but you can just call it 'possess.' New topic… how'd you even get here?"

"Being chased through the Ghost Zone; it's not as dizzying as Walter says it is, I find it a bit relaxing; and coming through a portal that closed on me. Been stuck here since."

Kenny didn't say anything, but his eyes glazed over as he went deeper into thought. Kenny blinked and sighed.

"We should head back… everyone's gonna worry about where we are."

"Yeah, you're right." Danny agreed. He started walking for a moment before stopping. "Hang on, I've got one more little outburst to let loose. You'll want to cover your ears for this one." Kenny nodded and set his hands on the sides of his head.

Danny turned away from Kenny and took a deep breath. His Ghostly Wail erupted from his lungs and knocked over rock formations that hadn't been taken out from Danny's first tantrum. His scream ended as Danny ran out of breath. He listened to the echoes bounce back and forth through the canyon for almost a minute before he brought himself back around to a frozen Kenny.

"Dude... that… was so loud. And powerful." Kenny barely managed to get out.

"It was what I used to get out of the trunk yesterday. Come on, let's go."

Wednesday, After School.

"Hey Danny!" Duncan called to him as he ran over.

"Hey Duncan. What's up?"

"I got confirmation from M.E.G.T.A.F. to take a few friends to visit my dad. I figured since you haven't met him yet, you would want to, right?"

"Uh, your dad is where your Kaiju half came from, if I remember correctly." Danny began eying Duncan suspiciously.

"Your memory is spot-on. Don't worry, he's not able to do anything extreme without M.E.G.T.A.F. doing something. Anyway, once in a lifetime chance to meet the King of all Kaiju. Whadda say?" Duncan seemed oddly chipper.

"Sure. When?"

"Blitz will come to your house in a jet shortly after 5:00. Be ready by then, he doesn't like waiting."

The two smiled and brofisted before Duncan left.

"Hey, nerd." Troy cackled from behind Danny. _For a large moron, he definitely knows how to sneak up on people._

"Hey, Troy." Danny grimaced and turned to face him.

"Down to business. My buddy owes his parents $800 for the damage to his car. The damage that you did."

"How do you know it was even me? Not someone who helped me escape?" Danny thought and said fast. The bully frowned and looked at Danny as if there were something unidentifiable on his face.

"Mainly because the damages came from inside the trunk, not the outside." One of the boys said.

 _Whoops…_ Danny thought. "Where could a little guy like me ever hope to find the strength to do something like that?" Danny feigned.

"He has a point." Another one of Troy's friends said. They critiqued his tiny frame and all looked like they agreed.

"Alright then, pipsqueak. If you didn't bust out, then who is it that owes us $800?" Troy growled, angry at both Danny and himself for losing focus.

"I could tell you…" Danny sighed. "But you'll have to catch me first." As the 't' slipped from Danny's mouth, he was off and running. His backpack slammed against his back with each step Danny took. _I'm starting to do this way too often._ Danny noted as he turned a corner. Right there in front of him was Kenny, Isabel, Jenna and Duncan talking.

"Hey guys! Can't talk! Hold this!" Danny yelled and tossed the backpack into Duncan's arms as he ran by. No one got a single word in before Danny was halfway down the hall. The pack of bullies was losing Danny's trail now that he wasn't carrying the bag anymore. Then came the main staircase. Danny jumped down the whole flight, with ghost flight helping him, and landed roughly. A somersault helped him recover.

Danny stopped for a moment and put his hand up on the wall next to him. He panted and looked back. Troy and his posse had stopped at the top of the stairs, unable to comprehend how Danny had achieved a jump of that magnitude. Danny chuckled, still somewhat out of breath. After a few deep breaths, Danny took off again. Once he reached the school's main doors, he blasted them open. Danny grunted as the harsh sunlight entered his vision.

There were a lot of students outside, some waiting for rides home, some chatting with friends. As the doors shut, Danny heard Troy closing in. He turned right and ran along the edge of the building. _Got to find a place to hide! Or fly up to the roof, that's good too._ Danny planned. Danny whipped around the corner to find two students making out.

"Sorry." Danny apologized and continued running, but gagged when they couldn't see him. By now, Danny was running past the portables. Personally, he didn't have any classes with the teachers inside. He looked behind him to see that Troy wasn't anywhere in sight. Danny made a ninety degree turn and dove between the portables. He went invisible and attempted to control his rapid breathing.

Troy and his friends came into view, huffing, and stopped close to where Danny was.

"Seriously, how does that runt do it?" One panted.

"I have no idea, but it's getting annoying." Troy said and scowled, not winded at all. They remained awhile before leaving. Danny let out a sigh of relief, still invisible. He flew back to his home, where Allie waited for him inside the door.

"Welcome back, Danny!" She wrapped him in a hug, which he returned.

"Allie, I'm going out again tonight with my friends. Is that alright?" He asked.

"Of course. What time?" Allie questioned.

"About 5:00." He answered.

"You'll barely have time for dinner. I hope you get enough to eat before you go." Allie said, a slightly worried look on her face.

"With your cooking, that won't be a problem." Danny stated with a smile.

4:56 PM

Danny sat on the porch with his eyes patrolling the sky for any sign of the jet. The ivory clouds bled a soft pink the more time passed. With nothing to do, Danny's mind wandered.

 _"_ _Danny, you have some visitors." The head lady of the orphanage informed him after knocking on his door._ Me? Visitors? _Danny was confused. He got up and followed the head lady down to the lobby. Just before they went through the door, the lady whispered, "Don't blow this. This family is generous enough to foster you."_

 _Danny nodded. She pushed the door open and let him through. The first thing he saw was two kids, a boy and a girl, standing directly next to him and staring up into his eyes._

 _"_ _Hi! I'm Katie!" The girl squeaked happily._

 _"_ _And I'm Max!" The boy said proudly. Once that was finished, they ran back giggling to their parents. The woman was wearing a turquoise skirt and a white blouse, but her smile was even brighter. The man had a thin mustache and was wearing a nice tux, complemented by a dark purple tie._

 _"_ _Hello, Danny. I'm Brandon Nebel. This is my wife, Allie. How are you today?"_

 _"_ _I'm doing good." Danny said, turning around to watch the head lady lock the door behind him. The memory of the ghost zone door danced across his vision, which forced him to blink madly before swinging back to the Nebel family._

 _"_ _Are you sure?" Allie asked, tilting her head slightly at Danny's behavior._

 _"_ _Yeah. It's just… you're the first ones to consider me. And I've been here for almost four weeks." Danny murmured, his gaze falling to the floor. Katie's face popped into view._

 _"_ _Hey Danny, what do you like to do? I like drawing in my coloring book." Katie blurted out. Danny couldn't help but smile._

A jet's roar snapped Danny back to the present. The jet touched down in the street while sending out waves of wind all around. The engine idled as a hatch in the back opened and Duncan walked out, waving. Danny grabbed his small backpack and raced over, fighting the force of the wind the entire way. Once he was inside, Danny relaxed and saw he was the last to be picked up. Jenna, Isabel and Kenny already sat in passenger seats, strapped in and all.

Danny was directed to his own seat by Duncan, who helped Danny strap in before taking his own place in the cockpit next to Blitz. The jet lifted off effortlessly and shot off for the canyon lands. Danny watched the ground below, which was only a light brown blur.

 _He watched the ghost zone around him become a green blur…_ He shook his head. Danny did not need that, especially now, when he was trying to have at least some fun. It didn't take long for the jet to reach the base's hangar.

"Alright kiddos, while you're here, you will not touch anything unless told to. Understood?" Blitz commanded, just like a drill sergeant.

"Understood." The teens repeated.

"Now, everyone follow me." Blitz turned to lead the group to the door and said, "And no, Duncan, you are not to go anywhere without my permission." Without even turning around to see Duncan's raised hand, which drooped and fell to Duncan's side. Blitz led the teens through a series of doors, some locked and some automatic. Several sentries were posted to various doors along the hallways. All dressed the same, though there were those who had chosen not to wear a helmet.

Danny felt like the walls were getting smaller the more they walked. _Is this claustrophobia?_ He thought and felt a sweat drop trickle down the back of his neck. Danny's hands were shaking, so he shoved them in his pockets. After what seemed like forever, Blitz led them up to a large, reinforced steel door.

"Ready?" Blitz asked. Everyone nodded.

"As I'll ever be." Danny spoke so softly that no one heard him. Blitz ran a card by a scanner, which caused the door to pop and hiss as it creaked open. The door led… outside? Danny looked up to the red sky, through an extremely heavy glass dome. The rock had been carved into a massive pit that now held a large, maroon creature.

"Belloc!" Blitz bellowed. "You've got company!" Belloc first raised his head, then morphed to his humanoid form as he lifted himself from the ground and walked over to the deck where they all stood.

"How've you been, Duncan? I would hope you've been training." Belloc's naturally low voice sent small vibrations through the metal platform, and thus, Danny.

"Not in the way you'd want me to. But yes." Duncan replied. Belloc stared at each person in turn.

"These are the human friends that you associate with?" Belloc growled.

"They are. And I would fight harder than ever to protect them." Duncan growled as well. But when compared to his father's, it was nothing. Belloc gazed at Danny longer than the others.

"I do not recall this friends of yours."

"This is Danny. He's a new addition to our group and already it's like he's been with us longer." Jenna finally gathered the courage to talk.

"Danny… Your name is familiar, in a way." Belloc purred. Danny felt a massive wave of goosebumps coat his entire body.

"Don't you push it, Belloc." Blitz grumbled. Belloc chuckled.

"I see you are, how do you humans put it? Still a little ray of sunshine?" This got even Kenny to laugh. Only Blitz remained still-faced while everyone tried to pull themselves back together. Blitz cleared his throat.

"I think we're done here."

"But we barely got to do anything." Isabel whined. Blitz jerked his head toward the door impatiently.

"Danny, I would like to speak with you a moment." Belloc stopped Danny. He looked at Blitz, who sighed and said, "Fine. Knock on the door when you're finished."

Danny nodded and watched the steel door groan to its resting position when closed. He winced momentarily before he turned to face the giant.

"What is your true nature, boy?" Belloc asked gently, for such a large beast.

"My nature?" Danny questioned, confused.

"Hmm. Are you not aware that kings can sense the presence of other kings?" Belloc explained.

"Oh, that." Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck to try and calm down. "So, you can tell?"

"Yes, I can tell you are royalty of sorts. I am Belloc Rosenblatt, King of the Kaiju. Who are you?" Belloc thundered.

"I am Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom, King of the Ghosts." Danny proclaimed, almost unintentionally.

"Ah, that makes sense now…" Belloc sighed.

"What makes sense?" Danny inquired.

"Danny, you and I are racial kings. As such, for reasons even I do not know, we can tell when a new head has been crowned. I sensed that much and received the knowledge within a dream. I did not see an image, however, only that Danny Phantom was King of Ghosts."

"I understand. I wonder why I haven't experienced this." Danny said thoughtfully.

"Probably because there was no need. As far as I can tell, you are the only King crowned as of late." Belloc explained. "Go on, that maniac Blitz will be getting suspicious of our conversation. Do not fear, young King, I shall not divulge your identity to any."

"Thank you, Belloc." Danny expressed with a bow. Belloc waved and shook his head.

"Do not bow. We are equals, though not the same species. But equals, all the same." The massive king stated.

Danny turned to knock on the door.

"Do me a favor, young Phantom. Give my boy some good battle training."

"I'll try." Danny laughed. The metal door squealed in defiance as it was forced open.

"You good to go, Danny?" Blitz asked.

"Yeah, I'm good." Danny replied.

"Got a sec, Blitz?" Dr. Pytel whispered from behind a corner. Blitz finished shoving the kids into the jet before joining the doctor.

"What's the matter, doc?" The man inquired.

"It's the bandana- the samples within it, to be precise." Dr. Pytel's voice quivered with excitement. "You see, there's DNA on it that even I can't identify. However, it does have a close resemblance to the ice on the Kaiju from the Halloween Dance."

"Meaning?" Blitz probed.

"Duncan told us of a mystery boy who interrupted his fight, remember? Well, the cytokinesis he used left some DNA in it. I was able to compare the DNA from that and the sample from the bandana, which, as I said, closely match. Enough to verify that Danny Fenton was able to escape the car with the help of the mystery kid."

"That does explain a bit." Blitz grumbled. "However, it doesn't explain how that super-whatever kid was able to find and help Danny."

"Don't you worry about that, sir. I'm already working on figuring it out." Dr. Pytel assured with a wink.


	11. Chapter 10

**Hello everyone! Thanks so much for all the reviews and favorites! It really means a lot to me!**

 **I get that Danny's homesickness is out of nowhere, but that tends to be how homesickness works- I would know. Just need a trigger to set it off.**

 **If anyone has any Q's, don't be afraid to message me, or post it in the reviews.**

 **READ!**

Thursday, One Week after visiting Belloc.

Once again, the internet provided nothing on potential whereabouts of ghost portals. Danny groaned and leaned back in his chair, in his room. _If only I had the Infini-Map. I could be home in the blink of an eye._

A soft knock came to Danny's door. He shut his computer screen off and went to open it.

"Danny, dinner's ready. Are you feeling okay?" Allie distressed, trying to peer through the crack in the door.

"I promise, I'm fine. Really." He assured her, blocking her view of a messy room. "I'll be out in a minute." The door closed gently. _I'm not sure if I can keep this whole ghost thing a secret from her much longer._ Danny supposed.

"It's not like I can walk up to them and say, 'Hey, I forgot to tell you that you adopted a human-ghost hybrid kid. Also, this kid is the king to the entirety of the ghost race." Danny muttered. He invisibly stuck his head through his door to make sure Allie hadn't heard that. To his relief, she wasn't even there.

He opened the door, shut it and locked it, and went to the kitchen table. Katie and Max bounced in their seats as Brandon brought the enchilada dish to the middle placemat. Danny sat down at the same time Allie did.

"Danny… if you need to tell me anything, just say so." She told him.

"I will." Danny promised. Brandon started dishing out the enchiladas, which helped drop the topic. At this point, Katie and Max began blabbering about their school day.

Thursday, That Night.

Danny took one last look at the computer screen, as if the search results for portals had come up with something new. With a sigh, he shut down the browser and turned the computer off. He stood up only to have a blue wisp of air escape his lips.

"Hey, aren't you King Phantom?" A child asked from behind him. Danny whirled around to the child; a young girl, with a single ponytail. She wore a bright pink dress, partially in tatters, with a red rose on the front.

"You are a smart little girl. Do you need something?" Danny assumed. The girl giggled and covered her mouth.

"Well…" She clasped her hands together behind her back and rocked on her feet. "I'm looking for someone to play with me. Will you come outside?" She begged with a large smile.

Danny took a moment to look outside, at the darkening sky that filled with tiny stars. A quick glance at his digital clock told him it was 8:14.

"I guess I've got enough time. What are you wanting to play, uh… by the way, what's your name?"

"I'm Sarah! I wanna play ball." Sarah summoned a medium sized, orange rubber ball and held it out for him to see.

"Alright, let's go play." Together they phased through Danny's wall and prepared on the lawn. Danny's eyes quickly scanned the neighborhood; there was no one in sight. Sarah tossed the ball high into the air. Danny caught it and pretended to fall down from the weight. As the cold grass leaned both away and into his skin, he heard Sarah laughing.

They continued to toss the ball back and forth for what felt like forever when Sarah finally yawned.

"I'm tired. I'm gonna go home now. Thank you for playing with me." Sarah rubbed her eyes, picked up the ball and walked down the sidewalk until she became a pink mist and faded out of view. Danny glanced down at his watch. 10:48. _Time flies when you're with ghosts._ Danny went back to his window, peeped in to check if the coast was clear, and intangibly jumped through his wall.

Friday.

Danny slipped off his propped hand as sleep crept into his head. His forehead collided with his desk and he jerked himself back up. The class burst into laughter and the teacher cleared his throat.

"Have a rough night, Mr. Fenton?" He asked.

"No, no, no. I'm just… Yes, I had a rough night." Danny admitted. The class continued to snicker as Mr. Radley resumed his lesson. The bell soon rang and the class vanished within seconds. Danny distantly followed the stragglers into the swarming hallway. Kids slipped into their next classes while others formed circles with friends to waste whatever time they could. Danny rubbed an eye to stop the burning of the bags underneath.

The bell rang once more and the lifeless hallway was silent again.

"Hey-a Fenton. How've you been?" Troy appeared in front of Danny, smirking and punching his own hand.

 _He's alone this time._ Danny noticed immediately. "Just my usual thing, trying to stay awake while keeping my grades up."

"Like I actually cared. Listen squirt, I'm going to make sure you get what's coming to you, along with ruining your attendance." Troy chuckled. This time, Danny tipped his head and laughed softly.

"I have a feeling you're about to get what's coming to you."

"What're you talking about, punk?" Troy pulled back slightly.

"I haven't had the chance to thank you for everything you've done. And now seems like the perfect time."

Danny didn't give Troy a chance to respond. His eyes raged green as he leapt inside Troy's body. Danny easily overpowered Troy's mind and it only took seconds for Troy's eyes to turn the same neon green.

Troy turned around and raced for the nearest set of lockers. He body slammed them, badly denting several. Then he ran across the hall and repeated his action. Troy then took off down the hall toward larger lockers. Troy grabbed the first handle he came across and ripped the locker wide open. He grinned manically and shoved his large body into the locker, inching his way deeper into the metal cage. Once inside, Troy reached for the locker door and slammed it shut so hard that it jammed.

Danny, invisible, left Troy in the locker, screaming for help and answers to how he got there. Danny flew through the deserted hallway to his class. A random teacher heard Troy yelling and opened their door, looking around for the source.

"You're late, Danny." His teacher said as he walked through the door.

"Sorry, I stopped at the bathroom." Danny explained.

Lunch.

"Did you guys hear about what happened to Troy?" Duncan laughed as he sat down at the table. Danny spewed the milk he was drinking onto his face.

"No, what?" Kenny asked, handing Danny a handful of napkins.

"Troy got shoved into a locker." Duncan busted up and almost fell out of his chair.

"No way. Troy, the bully, finally getting bullied?" Isabel smiled as she recapped.

"And the best part is, he doesn't know who did it or how it happened!" Duncan gasped.

"Really? This doesn't sit right…" Jenna mumbled. No one but Danny (cleaning up the milk) heard her over the sound of laughter.

At that moment, Troy walked into the cafeteria, his crew in tow. Everyone at Danny's table shut up to look at them.

"I'm telling you guys, I really don't know what happened!" Troy groaned.

"Well if you don't remember that moment, how about before and after?" One of his friends asked.

"I was… about to pummel… Fenton!" Troy's eyes lit up and scanned the room.

 _Wow, the idiot has a memory after all._ Danny silently observed as he dove under the table. Danny watched Troy's shoes come across the massive space to the table.

"Where's your friend, freak?" Troy snarled.

"Don't know. We're still waiting for him." Jenna covered.

"It's weird, he's usually here by now. Guess we'll have to look for him." Isabel chimed in.

"And stop calling me freak. Otherwise I might just start shoving you into lockers." Duncan growled.

"Tch." Was all Troy said as he and his friends left. Danny peeped over the table once they were gone.

"Thanks guys." Danny sighed as he got back in his chair.

"No prob, dude. Be right back." Duncan stood up with his garbage. Jenna and Isabel joined him. Kenny leaned over to Danny and said,

"It was you, wasn't it?"

"Like I was going to let him throw me around forever." Danny replied haughtily.

"Danny, as much as I think that's cool, it doesn't seem right for you to do stuff like that." Kenny seemed uneasy.

"I'm not going to do it every time Troy comes up to me. Besides, after virtually a month of him harassing me, I don't know why I didn't do more."

Duncan, Jenna and Isabel got back, preventing further conversation.

Friday, Evening.

 _I wonder if time even passes the same in this world. Back home, it could only have been a few days, or even a year. I hope not._ Danny thought as he sat on the roof of the Nebel house. The sun was getting close to being eclipsed by the earth's horizon and the clouds were already a deep red-orange.

I don't have anything to worry about, right? The ghosts I've met don't seem to be overly excited about finding me… Danny's eyes snapped open. Hold the phone!

He jumped down from the roof onto the grass. Danny's head leaned through the front door and he yelled,

"I'm going for a walk!"

"Again?! Be careful!" Allie replied just as loud from the opposite side of the house.

Danny was gone instantly and running down the sidewalk. Before he knew it he was at the place where he first met Walter. Danny had to wait a few minutes for an elderly couple to walk past before he could phase through the ground.

The first thing Danny saw was the large pond surrounded by lime stalagmites. The entire cavern seemed to be alive, a soft green light giving visibility and warmth to the whole place. At the edge of the turquoise pond was a small shack with oddities of all sorts littering the area around it. Danny transformed into Phantom and flew down to the shack's door. One knock. Two knocks.

"Hold your horses! Be right there!" Walter called out. Danny listened to his footsteps approach the door until there was a large, glass-like crash inside. Danny heard Walter grumble and the sound of the object being swept up. Then the door swung open.

"Well, how are you doing, your Highness? Why, if you'd told me you were coming, I would've tried to clean up this old dump…" Walter blabbed, shoving something out of sight with his foot. A new coffee mug appeared in Walter's hand, immediately being raised to Walter's lips.

"Walter, do you know where to find a ghost portal?" Danny finally got to ask.

"A ghost portal? Shoot, there should be one right over…there…" Walter came out of the house to show Danny, but trailed off. "That ain't right. I had a portal right over there!" Walter flew across the water's surface to the spot he had been staring at.

"Is there a ghost portal you know for sure is always open?" Danny pressed.

"Hmm. Thanksgiving is getting pretty close, so the portal at the graveyard is bound to open!"

"Tell me more."

"Alrighty! Every Thanksgiving at the graveyard up north of town, a ghost portal opens exactly at midnight. I haven't the foggiest clue why it's always at midnight…"

"Walter, focus." Danny said.

"Right, right, sorry your Highness."

"And none of this 'Your Highness' stuff. Just call me Danny."

"Done and done! Any who, if it's a ghost portal you're looking for, that might be your best chance. 'Course, it closes after five minutes and won't open again 'til next year." Walter clarified.

"I see. Thank you so much, Walter." Danny said.

"No problem-o! I'm gonna guess you're gonna use that portal?" Walter inquired.

"Yep. If I'm lucky, I'll finally be able to go home after almost three months…" Danny sighed. Walter let out a long, low whistle.

"Three months? You sure are the hardy type, Danny."

"You think so? I've got to get going. Make plans and all that fun stuff."

"I sure hope I get to at least say good-bye or see ya again sometime." Walter sniffed. "It's been awhile since I've had company." Danny returned a smile.

"I'll come back to say hi, I promise."

Saturday. November 12th.

"How am I supposed to explain everything to everyone before I leave?" Danny muttered into his pillow. "And what would I do if I missed that five-minute time frame?"

A knock came to his door. Allie pushed it open just enough for her head to come through. She eyed the messy floor before looking at Danny.

"We're going to the park. Please come with? You don't have to do anything." She requested softly.

"Okay. I'll be a sec." He replied. The door shut quietly and Danny quickly shoved a few things into a small drawstring bag. _First aid kit, just in case. Cell phone, duh. I don't need anything else._ He tossed the bag over his shoulder and walked out of his room.

"Catch!" Brandon called out. A loaf of bread came flying through the air into Danny's arms.

"What am I doing?" Danny asked.

"Putting that in your bag for Katie and Max. They'll want to feed the ducks." Brandon answered. "Come on, everyone's waiting in the car."

Danny nodded and carefully placed the bread in his bag. Once that was done, he raced out to the waiting van.

"Sorry Danny, Katie and Max really wanted to be in the middle, are you okay with sitting in the back?" Allie questioned mildly.

"Yeah, that's fine." Danny replied. He crouched between the open seat and the car wall, shuffling his way into the back seat.

"Danny! You have to play with us!" Katie squealed with a large grin. Max smiled deviously as he gave Danny a thumbs up.

"I guess I can for a little bit." Danny gave in. The twins erupted into happy laughter and talking about what they would do once they got there. Brandon and Allie sat in the front, chuckling as they listened to the kids. It wasn't long before they finally arrived at the park. Brandon had barely put the car in park when Katie and Max hopped out of the car and were excitedly waiting for everyone else. Danny stepped out of the van only to have Katie and Max grab his wrists and drag him to the playground.

Danny blinked and he was at the top of a twisting slide with the two kids in front of him.

"Go!" They both screamed happily and waved their hands in the air as Danny pushed all three of them down. As they went down in circles, Danny could see Allie and Brandon sitting on a bench, watching. The moment Danny's shoes touched the sand, he was, again, being dragged off to another place. This time, the swings.

"Higher!" Max yelled. Danny gave him another push that sent the swing half way into the air. Katie was content swinging lightly, only at a fraction of the power her brother was at.

Thump. Danny felt the minor vibration in his knees. He looked around, but trees blocked his view. Thump. It was stronger. Thump. Danny could see the trees beginning to shake as well. Thump. A Kaiju's head came up from below the tree line, growling at the innocent people in the park. Somewhere, a dog barked.

"Well, there goes a quiet day…" Danny muttered.


	12. Chapter 11

**Okay! I feel like this chapter is a bit short, but that's not important! What is important is how fast this story has grown and how many of you love it! Thanks so much!**

 **Funny Story: I write this electronically. Mainly on my laptop. I had it charging in one of those large power cord extensions, (currently in use by sister), but I had no idea that those cords packed so much juice! Keeping the story short, I got electrocuted while writing. (Felt it from hand all the way to my knees!)**

 **Spoiler: Character Development! OOOooooOOOoooOOOo!**

 **You all saw this coming...READ!**

 _Maybe I need a Kaiju Sense, too._ Danny thought. Katie and Max had gotten off the swings and were cowering behind Danny.

"Get to Allie and Brandon, now!" Danny ordered them. He handed Max his backpack as the two took off. Danny looked around in the newfound chaos of citizens. _Gotta find some place to change._ He thought as he dodged a few panicking people. Danny spotted the bathroom shack across the small park field.

"Here goes nothing…" Danny muttered and ran. The Kaiju stomped its way through the grove of trees it had been standing behind, allowing Danny to clearly see his opponent.

The Kaiju looked like a massive house fly, standing on its hind pair of legs with an equal size of redwood tree trunks. The other four limbs protruded as they would on a fly, yet had two sharp prongs for fingers on the end. Of course, the Kaiju had wings, just like its insect counterpart.

One of the legs stepped forward, almost crushing Danny as he somersaulted to avoid it. Danny raced behind the bathrooms and turned into Phantom. He soared into the air behind the Kaiju, quickly landing a single punch to what he assumed was the shoulder blade. The Kaiju screeched and whirled around, backhanding Danny in the process. Danny flipped end over end through the air into a tree.

After the dizzy nausea left his head, he spat out a mouthful of leaves.

"You are really going to get it." Danny growled. He grabbed the nearest branch and pulled it back, then let it whip him back into action. He rose above the giant and shot dozens of plasma balls all over the Kaiju. The explosions sent green smoke into the beast's eyes, making it screech once more. Danny watched a watermelon sized tear escape the Kaiju's gilded eye before it took a swipe at him.

Its leg passed through Danny's stomach. Danny just about shivered from the feel, even though intangibility was nothing new. The Kaiju spun itself around from the force of its attack, falling to where a little girl was standing in stupefied horror. Danny felt whatever color he had in his face leave as he swooped down and snatched her out of the way. Danny set her down well out of the way before he flew back into the sky. Immediately after, he dove down and kicked the Kaiju's face as it turned around to look at him. Its head whipped the opposite direction and it groaned as its massive body fell to the ground.

Thus, the fight was over. The park's atmosphere became still, a breeze quietly slipping over the titan. Danny took a deep breath but froze completely when he heard a small *ahem* behind him.

"Danny? Is that you?" The little girl he had saved asked almost too softly for him to hear. He gulped and turned himself around extremely slowly. The girl was none other than Katie.

"Katie, didn't I tell you to run?" Danny questioned while feeling a sweat drop slide down the back of his neck.

"But, you didn't follow us. Mommy got really worried and Daddy was going to come back for you. Me and Max decided that I would come get you while Max ran away with Mom and Dad." She cried quietly. _She really was worried…_ Danny realized. He bent down onto one of his knees while letting the white rings of light return him to normal.

"Katie, it'll be alright." He assured her with a hug. Danny pulled himself back after a moment and put his finger in Katie's face. "Just promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Don't tell anyone."

"Huh? Why not?"

"I don't think everyone would be very happy if they knew."

"So I can't even tell Mom or Dad or Max."

"Not even them."

Katie looked away for a moment to think. "Okay. I won't tell. I'll even do a pinky promise!" She stuck out her little finger. Danny smiled and looped his around hers.

"Come on," Danny said, "We need to get out of here and find our family."

Saturday Evening.

 _I wonder if Katie and Max really have a telepathic connection; it would mean she doesn't break her promise and Max finds out._ Danny pondered as he re-watched the day's events through the news.

 _Wait, when and where did the news come from?_ Danny leaned forward with a small ball of dread forming in his stomach. His pixelated image flashed across the screen after the Kaiju had fallen. He heaved a sigh as he watched himself land on the other side of the Kaiju, out of camera's sight.

Then the camera started moving. Danny held his breath as the camera operator and the male reporter ran around the massive, unconscious body of the Kaiju.

" _Come on, run faster!_ " The reporter huffed. The camera operator didn't say anything, but Danny could tell that he did pick up the pace. _At least I think he's a he…_ The two rounded the head of the Kaiju. The camera operator whipped the camera to show the full body of the Kaiju. Danny was nowhere in sight. Danny sighed once more and relaxed into the couch. The screen changed to a scene where the news cast had been pushed back behind police tape.

" _In other words, the mysterious hero; we still don't have a name for him; has inexplicitly vanished after defeating this Kaiju behind me. There are still so many questions; who is he? What's his motive? Where is he now? And for all the ladies out there, is he single?"_

Danny began laughing on the couch. _Wow. Just, wow._ Allie peeped around the kitchen wall; pausing her amazing cooking.

"Are you alright?" She asked while glancing at the T.V.

"Yeah, I'm fine. This guy's just really funny." Danny flashed her a smile. She hummed with a smile as she returned to dinner.

" _This has been Jeffery Marding, have a good day; or night, wherever you are."_

Monday, November 14th.

Danny filled his lunch tray and began walking to 'his' table. As he got close, he could see that Duncan looked upset.

"I don't get it. Why would a Kaiju target Phantom? They're supposed to come fight me." Duncan muttered and placed his head on the table.

"Dude, you should be happy you're not their only target anymore. That means less stress and more free time!" Kenny explained.

"Not when my dad would be unhappy with the fact I'm not getting stronger. Or he would say I'm not important enough to be worth fighting anymore."

"I'm sure there's a good reason for all of this." Danny said as he sat down.

"I doubt you understand all of it, Danny. Does your dad expect you to be something you're not?" Duncan asked. His eyes widened quickly. "Oh, crud; I'm sorry Danny, I didn't mean it like that."

"It's fine, you're good." Danny replied. _I actually do. Ghost hunter who's supposed to hate anything ghost related? That would be it._ "Anyway, what are you guys doing later?"

"I've got house work with my parents to do. It's their idea." Isabel moaned.

"I have to be at a Student Council Meeting. I can't say how long it will be." Jenna said.

"You know me, I'm always free." Kenny gave a half-smile as he remarked.

"What 'cha got in mind, Danny?" Duncan questioned.

"I dunno, maybe hiking the canyons? Something we can all do to hang out." Danny answered.

The group looked at each other for several moments. Then they all nodded.

"Looks like it'll be only you three. Why not meet at the mouth of the canyon at about 5:30?" Jenna offered.

"I can roll with that." Danny smiled.

Monday, 5:30.

Danny stood alone in the growing cold. He pulled his jacket close.

 _Where are they?_ He thought as he scanned the road for the eightieth time. Then a car rolled up. Duncan and Kenny hopped out and ran over.

"Call me when you boys are done!" Margret called out the window. She drove off, leaving the three boys in the dust.

"We were late because my mom took a few detours getting here." Duncan mumbled and rubbed the back of his head.

"That's fine, just as long as you got here." Danny dismissed.

Kenny shifted his backpack around before saying, "Alright, let's get going."

"What did you even bring?" Danny asked.

"The usual. Trail mix, granola bars, water bottles, and a first aid kit. Oh, I've also got a whistle and compass in one." Kenny announced as they entered the trailhead. They were silent for the first fifteen minutes. Once they had perched at a particularly high cliff, they all took in the red sunset and the crimson landscape it had created.

Danny glanced at his two friends. Duncan seemed to be in a good mood, despite earlier that day. _I wonder… would now be a good time to tell Duncan who I really am?_ He studied Duncan's expression for a moment, looking back to the sunset when Duncan caught him staring.

"Danny? Is everything okay?" Duncan went from happy to slightly worried. _How will he take it? I can't exactly predict that reaction at this point._ Danny thought.

"There's something I've been wanting to tell you." Danny began to unconsciously rub his arm.

"Really? Then why haven't you told me?" Duncan asked softly.

"I…I don't know how you'll take it."

"Don't worry about it; I can handle pretty much anything." Duncan chuckled, trying to ease the tension. Even Kenny was being totally silent for the exchange. Danny took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"I've got two names, Duncan."

"What's so wrong about two names? I think I've got almost twelve…"

"My first name is Danny Fenton. My second…" Danny trailed off.

"Your second name is…" Duncan looked about ready to lean in for the answer. By now, Kenny had backed up a few steps.

"My second name… is… Danny Phantom." Danny finally managed to choke out. All at once, the canyon made its windy silence prominent. Duncan just stared at Danny while Danny fidgeted from Duncan's piercing eyes.

"You're…Danny Phantom?" Duncan sputtered. Danny simply nodded. Duncan finally regained control of his body to put a hand on his hip and the other on his head. At the same time, he tried to form words but they were all incomprehensible.

"Duncan-" Danny started to say.

"And you're only telling me this now?!"

"Duncan, I-"

"No, I don't want to hear your excuses. Who else knows?"

"Kenny, Katie and Belloc-"

"So I'm not a good enough friend to be told this kind of thing sooner?! Even after I trusted you enough to tell you about things like 'I'm half-Kaiju!' You could've said something then, like, 'Hey Duncan, I know exactly what it's like!' But no! Even my dad knows?!"

"I didn't tell your dad, he already knew!" Danny was finally able to counter.

"Yeah right! I'd like to hear him tell me how that works! Who knows, maybe my dad will tell me the secrets of the universe!" Duncan roared. Kenny had gone far enough back on the trail to hide behind a large rock.

"Can't you two work this out in a calm matter?" Kenny called out.

"Stay out of this Kenny; it's bad enough you already knew and didn't tell me!" Duncan growled in response.

"I never told Kenny, he figured it out on his own and asked me if he was right." Danny pulled Duncan's attention away from Kenny.

"You know what Danny? I am done talking to you. If you want to get my respect and friendship back, you'll have to fight it from me!" Duncan bellowed, changing into his Kaiju form.

"Fine; if that's what you really want. You have yourself a fight! Just keep in mind that the King of Ghosts isn't a hereditary title."


	13. Authors Note

**Thanks for all the reviews! (Sorry if that's getting to be said too much...)**

 **After reading the comments, and the idea coming from my beta reader, I've put up a poll for all of you! It's just asking about who you think is going to win the fight. Danny, or Duncan?**

 **Be sure to submit your answer!**

 **P.S. Don't worry, the story is still going! You guys really have been sending me good vibes...**


	14. Chapter 12

**I did not expect all the reviews over who would win! Hopefully you won't kill me for switching in the middle of the good part. :)**

 **I didn't want to make this too long so we could all get back to the fight as soon as possible.**

 **READ!**

Sam Manson's POV.

 _Where are you, Danny?_ She mulled over the thought for the millionth time that day. She stared out her bedroom window, watching silver stars beginning to form in the sky. _It's been three months; how could you not have found a way home yet?_ With a large sigh, she shuffled to her bat themed calendar, picked up a red marker and put an 'X' through November 14th. The light ding of a bell signaled a call coming from her laptop.

"Hello." She answered.

It was Tucker, calling from inside Technus' lab. "Hey Sam! Still nothing?" He asked with both hope and sorrow.

"Still nothing. How is it the Infini-Map hasn't found Danny?" Sam questioned.

"Not sure. Frostbite says it's because the map knows what's best, meaning Danny must be needed wherever he is."

"So he says. How's Skulker been doing?"

"Jazz told me that he's still pretty upset. He's sticking to the fact that, and I quote, 'It started as a simple game of chase, like the good old days, which Danny had agreed to do.' But Skulker of all ghosts should be able to recollect the area he last saw Danny in."

"I still say that's the consequence of chasing a guy who has been getting faster and faster at flying. I've gotten nothing from Spectra, Ember, Kitty or Princess Dora about anything. Some search party we are, huh?" Sam sighed once more.

"Disheartening, I know. But not all is lost! Some ghost is bound to see Danny eventually, since thousands of them travel between the Ghost Zone and earth all the time. Maybe even different worlds. We haven't had the chance to explore that concept before." Tucker began wiggling at the prospect.

"Tucker, focus. We'll have plenty of time to explore the Infinite Realms as soon as we find Danny. If we ever find him." Sam said the last part quietly.

"Oh! Pulling back to Danny's family, they have put out a reward for anyone who can find him. It's set at $7,500."

"Can his family even afford that? This is getting way too far out of hand if Danny's just pulling a prank."

"I doubt a prank would keep us from using the Infini-Map to find him; like I said earlier."

Just then, Sam heard the clack of heels at her door.

"Samantha, you've got visitors!" Pamela knocked and opened the door. _She's probably happy that Danny's been missing._ Sam's mind told her. She shook that thought away and headed downstairs. Standing outside the open doorway was a figure in a brown trench coat, a wide-brimmed black hat and a red scarf.

"Let's talk out by the alley, shall we?" The figure, a woman, spoke. The lady walked away from the door and Sam was about to follow her when Pamela grabbed her shoulder.

"Dearest Samantha, please find some better friends." She stated bluntly.

"Mom, it's fine. I know what I'm doing." Sam walked out of her mother's grip and quickly joined the lady.

"How've you been, Kitty?" Sam asked quietly.

"I'm doing okay." She replied as she pushed the hat up and pulled the scarf down. "I do have some news."

"Is it about Danny?!" Sam squealed hopefully.

"Yes! I got word that he has been spotted. However, the string that the rumor comes from is too old to know when and where Danny was seen." Kitty said.

"Oh. Okay." Sam mumbled. "But he was okay?"

"From the sound of it. I'll keep fishing for more and let you know if anything else comes up." Kitty promised.

"Thanks Kitty. And be sure to let every ghost know that Team Phantom is very grateful for the suspension of ghost activity in Amity Park." Sam asked.

"Of course. Have a good night, Sam." Kitty tipped her hat as she melted into the ground.

"And to you too." Sam responded softly. She walked back into the house, hearing her mother heave a big sigh of relief from the dining room. Sam rolled her eyes and made her way back to the stairs. Her grandmother Ida suddenly had her by the arm.

 _How is she so stealthy on her scooter?_ Sam asked herself as she gave in.

"Sweetie, I know what you've been up to." Ida whispered.

"Aha. Ha. Uh, what do you mean?" Sam winced.

"You've put together a large network of people to search for Danny, haven't you?" Ida stated softly.

 _I have an all-knowing grandma._ Sam thought. "Yes and it's starting to work! Please don't stop me now; I'm getting closer to finding Danny." She pleaded.

"Have I ever stopped you before?" Ida smiled.

"No. You haven't." Sam grinned as well.

"You're doing more than you have to. You make me proud, and remind me of what I used to act like when I was your age. Keep up the hard work and I bet you'll find your friend." Ida finished.

"Thanks grandma." Sam hugged her before heading back upstairs. She returned to the laptop and quickly called Tucker.

"Tuck! Do you know if Jazz is online?" She immediately asked.

"Hang on, I'll check…. Yeah, I'll connect her to our chat." Tucker's fingers could be heard clacking on the keyboard.

"Hello? Sam, Tucker, it's getting late. Is something wrong?" Jazz looked worried. Massive bags hung under her eyes, a result of stress from Danny's disappearance. Even after three months, not much had changed.

"You guys will be happy to hear what Kitty told me." Sam started. The two leaned close their screens. "Apparently, Danny's been seen."

Both Tucker and Jazz gasped.

"Where?!"

"Was he alright?"

"When did this happen?"

"Who did it come from?"

"Has Danny changed?"

"Shut up! Both of you!" Sam finally yelled. With new silence in the air, Sam sighed and recollected her thoughts. "Kitty told me that the string she got this information from is too old to track properly. She'll do her best anyway."

Sam watched the two droop their heads.

"Uh, in the meantime, we could… do… something?" Sam offered helplessly.

"By something you could mean… go into the Ghost Zone ourselves." Jazz finally spoke.

"Jazz, are you nuts?!" Tucker exclaimed.

"Tucker, I can't handle 'no Danny' anymore. We have a lead, why not follow it?" Jazz defended.

"But when would we find time to go? The adults don't need any of us disappearing too." Sam thought aloud.

"We could sneak out Thanksgiving night." Tucker suggested.

"That gives us enough time to prepare and plan our course of action with the least amount of resistance or even cut our search time in half." Jazz theorized.

"Not to mention we won't disturb anyone, since they'll all be asleep from their dinners. I'll be in charge of material supplies, as well as my own food." Sam volunteered.

"I'll take charge of the rest of the food supplies, as well as weapons check." Tucker hurriedly called dibs.

"I guess that leaves me with making sure we have access to the ghost portal and preparing the Specter Speeder. Is there anything we're forgetting?" Jazz finalized. They all paused for a moment as they mulled over the question.

"If we have, then it'll have to come up in the next two weeks." Sam replied at last.

"I'm sure it'll be fine; what's the worst that could happen?" Tucker said with a laugh. He was swiftly met with glares.

"That could happen." Sam moaned.


	15. Chapter 13

**The chapter you've all been waiting for- the decisive battle! Sorry it took so long, it was difficult getting the battle moving with the right words. Hopefully it works out!**

 **Now there's only one way to know how it turns out...**

 **READ!**

Danny's POV

Danny thrust his fist into Duncan's shoulder, sending him spiraling into the canyon wall. Danny took that moment to wipe the ectoplasm from the edge of his lip. _Jerk got the lucky first shot._ He spat the rest onto the ground. Duncan roared and leapt from the hole he created and slammed into Danny. Together they went flying over a cliff.

The two exchanged several punches before separating. Duncan's wings threatened to rip themselves apart, fighting against the wind as he stopped his fall. Danny's legs became a ghostly wisp and he stopped himself with little effort.

"Come on, Duncan! This is petty and you know it!" Danny screamed.

"Petty to you, maybe, but this means a lot to me!" Duncan roared in reply. He barreled into Danny once more, causing them to fall once more. Danny intangibly went through Duncan, moving behind him. Duncan crash landed into the ground, but tore his way back up through the rock.

Danny shot ecto beam after ecto beam at Duncan. Duncan countered with fire breath. The extreme heat consumed the ghostly energy entirely. The flame continued onward and enveloped Danny. He did his best to protect himself from the inferno by bringing his arms over his face.

Without him even thinking about it, Danny's ice core released its power and froze the fire solid. _A battle between fire and ice… that's kinda ironic._ Danny smiled at the thought. The newly formed ice shone from within, turning orange as it absorbed the dying embers. Danny pulled back his fist and punched the ice, causing it to shatter. The force of his hit caused ice shards to fly every which way, many colliding into Duncan.

"Since when do you have ice powers?!" Duncan exclaimed.

"Did you not see me use them on the Kaiju we fought?!" Danny retorted. With that, Danny shot an ice beam at Duncan. Duncan took the blast to his arm.

"Maybe," Duncan hollered, raking the ice off with his free hand, "You didn't see me having trouble hanging onto the things' back!" Duncan shot forward, knuckles at the ready. Danny yanked his own fist back and thrust it directly into Duncan's incoming fist.

The impact caused a shockwave to knock over anything unstable, such as small rock formations, in the immediate area. The two quickly jerked their own arms to their sides, attempting to shake out the pain.

"Son of a gun; shivering spooks; ow ow ow ow ARGH!" Danny yelled. Duncan was shouting his own string of unintelligible curses.

Danny rushed toward Duncan and kicked his gut, forcing Duncan to fall backwards and roll over himself in the dirt. Duncan pounced back onto his feet and leapt right at Danny. Duncan readied his claws and swung them. Danny barely managed to sidestep out of the way. Danny winced as he felt a spurt of ectoplasm exit his upper arm. _Is he getting faster?_ Danny thought as he thrust his own fist into Duncan's back.

While Duncan kissed the dirt, Danny shot into the air, gaining altitude quickly. He glanced backward at Duncan, currently flapping his wings furiously to catch up. _Too bad he isn't as fast as I am._ Danny grinned and rocketed higher, closing in on the clouds. Duncan stretched out his hand, shortening the distance between him and Danny's foot. Then clouds covered his vision. Danny had vanished.

"Where'd you go?!" Duncan screamed.

 _Like I'm gonna answer that._ Danny silently replied, watching Duncan rampage through the sky. He hovered invisibly inside one of the many clouds with only his head exposed. Duncan ranted while tearing his way from end to end of every puff of water vapor in his way. _Dang, if I don't stop him, it'll be the end of the water cycle._ Danny sighed and concentrated.

 _You control the power, it does not control you._ Frostbite's words echoed back and forth in Danny's mind. _That always has helped._ Danny let the ice within him build up. As it did, the cloud he was in grew colder and colder until it was ready to drop snow. _That's still not enough…_ Danny finally unleashed the power of extreme cold into the cloud. At that point, the cloud was so heavy that it started to fall from the sky.

Danny grabbed the cloud and span it around him repeatedly. Duncan finally stopped rampaging to notice Danny. With one last spin, Danny let go and let the cloud-sized piece of ice fly toward Duncan.

"What the -" Was all Duncan could say before it hit him. The cloud itself shattered on impact, but not before encasing Duncan in his own icicle. Danny restrained a laugh as Duncan helplessly fell down, away from the sky. Danny waited for the ice cube to make contact with the ground before following it. A new dirt storm rose from the earth in the same shape as a nuclear bombs' cloud, descending as quick as it came.

Danny landed gently outside the latest crater. He peered in, wary of what might happen next. Instead, he saw Duncan struggling to stand back up. He had lost half of a pant leg, with the other side torn badly. The rest of Duncan was lacerated with long cuts, no doubt from ice shards. Many of the cuts were bleeding, but nothing too serious.

"I'm not…giving up… that easy." Duncan gasped.

"I don't think you have a choice anymore." Danny calmly replied. Suddenly Duncan ignited his own hand and tossed the flame at Danny. Danny jumped out of the way as the fire whizzed past him. He turned around, only to meet Duncan's claws. Duncan raked them across Danny's chest, opening the cloth and his skin. Ectoplasm gushed forth and spread itself on Duncan's arm.

"Aw, gross." Duncan stopped to shake the opaque liquid off. Danny grunted and fell to his knee, his vision becoming blurry. _Not good… that was a solid hit._ Danny grimaced. _I'm gonna have to end this now if I'm going to win._ He stood up, ignoring the raging pain in his chest.

"You don't have the energy to beat me anymore." Duncan smirked.

"Neither do you. But you underestimate how much energy I have left." Danny chuckled. Duncan's smile fell away as Danny took a deep breath. _Chances are that I'll pass out after this._ Danny told himself. Duncan raced forward in an effort to stop whatever Danny was about to do. Big mistake. Danny let loose his ghostly wail when Duncan entered point blank. Duncan was immediately stopped dead in his tracks.

The force of the wail sent Duncan flying backward into a canyon wall. He was held there for what seemed like forever, covering his sensitive ears.

"Not…sure…how long…I…" Duncan groaned under the extreme pressure. Danny held it out for a few more seconds, and that was all he needed. Duncan collapsed, unconscious onto the ground once Danny stopped. Danny panted heavily with his hands on his knees and returned to normal. Duncan's body returned itself to normal as well.

"I…did it." Danny wheezed. The excess ectoplasm on his chest had turned into red blood, with the exception of green flecks floating in the crimson liquid. His shirt was torn as badly as his suit, exposing the wound.

"Danny! Duncan!" Kenny called from a distance. Danny waved him over.

"Woah… you actually beat Duncan?" Kenny stood awestruck.

"With a price. Hopefully the two of us can get him home before anyone else takes notice." Danny wiped sweat from his forehead.

"Hey, are you gonna be okay?" Kenny asked and pulled out his first aid kit.

"For the most part. I'd guess that Duncan and I will heal faster since we're both halfas, but it wouldn't hurt to bandage our cuts."

"Hate to break it to you Danny, but I think you might need stitches." Kenny pointed out. "And I didn't bring anything for that."

"Don't worry about it; help me with Duncan." Danny said.

It had taken some time, but Danny and Kenny had eventually managed to patch up Duncan, with spare for Danny. Duncan still had not woken up and Danny figured he wouldn't wake until morning, since the sun had gone down. Having been able to recover enough energy, Danny flew Kenny home and was on his way to Duncan's house.

 _I just hope Duncan and I can still be friends._ Danny frowned at the thought while passing through Duncan's bedroom wall and laid him on his bed.

"Duncan, is that you sweetheart?" Margret's voice asked from behind Duncan's closed door, illuminated by some other source of light. Danny saw her shadow under the doorway.

"That's my cue to leave." Danny muttered to himself and phased back through the wall. Danny invisibly stayed by the window.

"Oh Duncan!" Margret gasped, as Danny assumed, she entered Duncan's room. "What happened to you, baby?"

"I happened, that's what." Danny mumbled quietly. He froze when Margret opened the window and looked around. Finding nothing, she retreated inside and locked the window, shutting the curtains as well. "Give Duncan my best." Danny prayed and flew homeward.

Upon arrival, Danny could see that the house was dark. _Please don't let Allie be waiting for me... she won't be able to handle seeing my wounds._ Danny paused outside his own wall, carefully listening before entering his room. Luckily, Allie wasn't there. Danny heaved a sigh of relief and reached under his bed for his own first aid kit- one made for moments like this.

Danny used the moonlight coming in from the window to see what he was doing. First, he removed the meager bandages Kenny had given him. At once blood began pumping through the unfinished scabs. Danny winced. _Usually I would ask Sam, Tucker or Jazz to do this for me. Who I ask depends on how bad it is._ Danny laughed quietly, stopping because of his chest. He prepped his needle, thread, and put the torn, clean remains of his shirt in his mouth.

 _Here goes._ Danny relaxed himself as best he could as he started stitching his chest together. One stitch became two. Two became four. Danny sweat out the pain, trying to refrain from crying out. It took Danny almost an hour to entirely stitch the cuts together. After that, the rest of his shirt was such a mess that he simply tossed it in his garbage.

 _I wonder how school's going to go now…_ Danny thought and slowly rolled over in his bed.


	16. Chapter 14

**Yay! Another chapter! And I've got a little bit to say before anything starts...**

 **Death of Snipers** **: Back on how you said Danny's homesickness seems out of no where. For a while, I agreed with that. But then I happened across catharsis. Dictionary definition:** **the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. Then I thought, 'Hey, that sounds like what Danny did.' So yeah. Found a solution long after making it. When writing that, I used my own experience of homesickness, which didn't really have any impact until I thought about it. In my head, Danny hadn't told anyone about his homesickness, which in turn just created a little storm of bottled emotion. I hope this helps make sense of the story. (I'm not trying to sound mean, slap me if I do.)**

 **Okay. That's enough. Time to do your thing.**

 **READ!**

Tuesday, November 15th.

Danny had gotten up early that morning to double check the stitching on his chest. It had healed enough overnight for him to take them out. For the day, Danny had chosen to wear his hoodie for two reasons: it was loose enough to fit comfortably over the raw area and gave him free range of movement without snagging on any scabs. It took no time for him to arrive at school.

Danny pried the double doors open, scanning the area for anyone he knew. Thankfully, the only people around were students he did not know at all. He put his head down and watched the immediate floor as he walked past everyone. Danny slid into his first class as the only student. The teacher said nothing, as she was completely focused on her computer. He sat down and laid on the desk, careful to keep the edge off his chest.

Then Duncan walked in. What Danny and Kenny had bandaged yesterday was gone, beside a piece of medical tape over Duncan's cheek. Duncan said nothing, not even glancing at Danny, and took his seat beside him. The only noise in the room was the clacking of the teacher's keyboard and the clock.

"I'll be right back boys, don't get into trouble." The teacher hurriedly said and rushed out the door. Finally, Danny turned and met Duncan's gaze.

"My mom's out to get you." Duncan muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"She pretty much had a heart attack while waiting for me to wake up. By the time I got up, she had sworn an oath to find who hurt me so badly."

"…You didn't tell her it was me, did you?" Danny winced.

"I told her it was Danny Phantom. I didn't tell her that's also you."

Danny just stared at Duncan. "Really?"

"Yeah, and I was up pretty much all night. My mom was forcing me to do absolutely nothing, so I had time to think about everything that's happened." Duncan paused. "I guess you had your reasons for not telling me when we met. Heck, I didn't tell the girls and Kenny about myself until I had to."

"I was planning on telling you last month, but then the Halloween dance happened. But, we're still friends, right?"

"Still friends." Duncan grinned. Suddenly he gathered his hand into a fist and punched Danny's arm. "That's for yesterday. So, mind answering a few questions?" Duncan asked, his face beginning to light up. The teacher walked back in, arms full of papers, as the starter bell rang.

"I'll answer them during lunch; provided we can all find someplace quiet and secluded enough for it." Danny replied, rubbing his arm.

"What about the rest of the group?"

"I was thinking last night, it's about time they got in on all of this too."

Lunch.

Danny finished loading his food tray and went to meet his friends at the table. He was halfway there when his food was launched into his face.

"Check it out! It's a nerd of nutrition!" Troy laughed. Danny wiped mashed potatoes away from his eyes, glaring at the bully.

"I'm gonna be a nerd of mal-nutrition if I never get to eat." Danny grumbled.

"Don't you have anything better to do, Troy?" Duncan appeared at Danny's side.

"Let me think… nope. Nothing better." Troy said with a grin. He quickly put his hand on Danny's chest and gave him a large shove. Danny constricted a scream in his throat as the pressure on the scabs sent shockwaves of pain through his torso.

"And why are you wearing a hoodie?" Troy finally noticed and asked.

"I can change what I wear whenever I want. Besides, it's getting colder out." Danny pulled himself together to answer and stuck his tongue out. _Hey. Hey numbskull. Hey._ His conscience started saying. _You have an ice core. You don't get cold._ Danny pushed it to the back of his mind, despite agreeing with what it was pointing out.

"Nah, I bet it's to get the girls. They love guy hoodies." One of Troy's friends said, then started imitating hugging and kissing.

"Come on guys, let's go. These losers aren't worth anyone's time." Isabel jumped in. She grabbed both Danny and Duncan's arms and turned to walk away.

"What's the matter, chicka? You want his hoodie?" Another one of the gang called out. She stopped dead in her tracks, let go of their arms, and walked over to the guy who spoke.

"What was that?" Isabel growled in his face.

"Ha! You really do want his hoodie!" The moron guffawed.

Isabel's face furrowed and she grabbed the guys' shirt. Just as quickly, she punched him in the nose. It started bleeding and he fell to the ground, trying desperately to get it to stop.

"Danny's one of my closest, greatest friends. There's no need for it to go any further than that." Isabel stated bluntly and trotted off with her nose in the air.

"Remind me not to get you mad." Danny commented, half-impressed and half-terrified. As Isabel walked past, she smiled and gave him a wink.

It had taken some time, but the group found a place with the greatest privacy. Some abandoned stairs leading to the second level of the gym. With a door between them and the rest of the school, beside the gym, but it would still be hard for anyone nearby to clearly make out anything they were saying.

"By the way, why are we eating here today?" Jenna asked.

"For privacy. There's some serious stuff that needs to be shared, and here's the only place for it." Duncan explained.

"Serious stuff?" Isabel repeated.

"Serious stuff about me." Danny exhaled. "Like Duncan, I'm half-human." He waited for the information to sink in. "Truth is, I'm Danny Phantom. You already know about the 'King of all Ghosts' thing. Right now is just a time for questions. And a promise not to tell anyone else."

Everyone slowly nodded his or her head as they promised to secrecy.

"I'll go first- how'd you become half-ghost?" Duncan started.

"Unlike you, I was born a normal human. And I was until I made a stupid mistake and lost half of it in the process." Danny replied. "The short version being I got caught in a rift between dimensions and was overwhelmed by the energy of my opposite." He finished.

"I get it. Danny, when Walter told us about how you became king, did he leave out anything?" Jenna inquired.

"Most ghosts leave out the detail that I had an energy enhancing suit when I defeated Pariah Dark. But I've come a long way since then."

"How'd you end up here, in our world?" Duncan questioned.

"The ghost zone is mostly empty space. It's filled with buildings and rock formations that float on their own, along with random doors all over the place. I happened to go through one of these doors, leave it unattended and it vanished on me." Danny sighed.

"Does anyone hear that?" Duncan shushed them and perked up.

"It could be just your super hearing." Jenna whispered.

"No, I hear it too." Danny stood up. "It sounds like a little girl crying…"

"And it's coming from near the cafeteria." Duncan added. The group quickly made their way over to the main hallway just outside the cafeteria. There, they found a small ghost girl curled up by the water fountains.

"Sarah?" Danny called to her. She stopped crying long enough to look up at him.

"King Phantom!" She wailed and ran over. Danny bent down as she shoved her face into his shirt.

"What's the matter? The school isn't your usual haunt."

"I was playing ball when a mean guy came." Sarah bawled. Danny could feel his shirt becoming soaked with her tears.

"A mean guy? Do you know him?" Danny gently asked.

"Nuh-uh." She sniffed. "He's new."

"Where is this mean man?" Jenna entered the conversation.

"Just outside. That way." Sarah turned and pointed to the west doors on the far side of the building.

"Don't worry. We'll take care of it." Duncan knelt down and put his hand on her head with a smile. Sarah sniffed again and wiped a tear from her face with a small grin of her own.

"Thank you. I'll stay in here until he's gone." Sarah promised.

"Isabel, Kenny, Jenna. Stay here and keep an eye on Sarah. Duncan, you can come with me or stay with them." Danny ordered.

"I'll come with. Three people watching a kid is more than enough." Duncan responded.

"We'll be fine." Kenny assured.

"I guess the only thing we have to worry about is anyone seeing this." Isabel winked. Jenna did not say anything, but took Sarah's hand and was ready to go. The trio left and Danny led Duncan outside.

"I just hope we don't end up leaving campus…" Danny said nonchalantly. They both pushed the doors open and immediately Danny's ghost sense went off.

"Hmm? Who have we here?" A male voice invisibly groaned. "Some kid with an odd hairstyle and a bad tan?" The man appeared hovering in Duncan's face. He had on studded leather attire, pierced ears and nose accompanied by a pink flaming Mohawk. Red eyes. No older than thirty. Duncan let loose a deep growl as if he were a lion. The man sneered and floated over to Danny's face.

"Well, well, well. I finally get to meet our glorious leader and king: Danny Phantom!" Sarcasm oozed from his lips as he grinned, revealing a large set of shark-like teeth.

"You are correct." Danny straightened. "Who are you?"

"Th' name's Jackal. Like it? Chose it myself, no one telling me how it sounds or how it fits. 'Course, never let anyone tell me anything…" Jackal touched down on the pavement.

"Alright Jackal, what's your deal with Sarah?" Danny frowned as he asked.

"Who's Sarah? …Oh! That little girl! Silly child wouldn't listen to me when I told her I just wanted to play!" Jackal faked fainting as if he were an actor.

"So, where you from?" Duncan probed once he finished growling.

"Here and there. I'm a drifter. Terrorize kids in one city for a while and then move on to the next when the kids get boring." Jackal cackled and tossed his hands into the air. He stopped. "There goes my chances here, huh?"

"Yeah, you just lost it. I suggest you head to the ghost zone. That's a command from your king." Danny firmly stated.

"Sorry bro. King or not, I listen to no authority." Jackal shrugged him off. Danny grit his teeth.

"Go on your own or I'll force you." Danny said again, a little more threat in his tone.

"Earth to Danny. How are you gonna get him in the ghost zone when you haven't been able to?" Duncan leaned over to whisper in Danny's ear. Danny's shoulders began to sag as it sank in.

"Hahaha! Guess it'll have to be by force! Been way too long since I last got to fight." Jackal purred.

"And I guess it will be two on one, I'm helping." Duncan stepped in.

"All the better." Jackal laughed.


	17. Chapter 15

**I'm not dead, I promise! (And the story is NOT going on hiatus.) Just trying to figure out the bumps of the story, which aren't too big to handle anymore, thank goodness!**

 **Like I've said, (and going to keep saying,) thanks for the reviews! It's refreshing to read them and get a different perspective on the story. Not much to add to that, so...**

 **READ!**

It happened as quickly as it started. Danny and Duncan sent Jackal back wheeling from a combo punch, creating a large distance between them.

"What's that noise?" Duncan suddenly asked.

"Well, you're not crazy, I hear it too." Danny replied. The hissing and high-pitched squealing they heard got closer and louder until… bam. A missile hit Jackal, the explosion doing nothing to Danny or Duncan.

"What the heck? We didn't even get to fight." Duncan whined. The smoke cleared and Jackal lay on the ground unconscious. His clothes had brand new scorch marks, each containing a hole of different size. The flaming Mohawk was gone, leaving a shiny head in its wake. Then the sound of a helicopter filled the air. It wasn't long before a M.E.G.T.A.F. jet was threating to blow Danny and Duncan away as it came closer to the ground.

"Aren't you kids supposed to be at lunch?" Was the first thing Blitz (dressed in his usual commander gear,) said as he stepped out the hatch.

"And this is what you do for a lunch break?" Danny retorted.

"Fair enough, kid. Don't worry about this guy- ghost, thing, whatever. M.E.G.T.A.F. is all over it." Blitz put an arm around each of them and began walking back to the school. Danny looked back over Blitz's arm to watch other M.E.G.T.A.F officers move Jackal into some form of a stasis pod. _Not good._ Danny's conscience warned him.

"Also, I advise you two to forget what you saw here. Other than that, have a good day." Blitz left them at the door without waiting for their response and returned to the jet. Together, Danny and Duncan watched the jet lift off, raise high into the sky and race off to the horizon.

"I guess it's a good thing he's not so vague in gym class, huh?" Danny commented once the jet was gone.

"Yeah. But what was that about? I kinda-sorta know M.E.G.T.A.F., and they've never had any sign of interest in the paranormal. Besides, I always believed their primary focus was Kaiju." Duncan said.

"Aren't Kaiju and the paranormal pretty much the same thing?" Danny questioned.

"Pfft. No. Paranormal is the stuff that hasn't been proven to exist. Kaiju definitely exist." Duncan countered.

"Right. Cause ghosts don't exist." Danny scoffed. "Come on, let's head back inside."

"Sorry. Still trying to get used to all that." Duncan face palmed and followed Danny. It took about five minutes for them to find the group with Sarah.

"King Danny! Did you get 'em?" Sarah squealed.

"Uh… yep! The bad person is gone now. But please promise that you'll be careful going home, okay? There's still a lot of trouble a little girl like you can get into." Danny explained softly.

"Yes Your Majesty!" Sarah nodded.

"I've already told you, there's no need to call me 'King' or 'Your Majesty.' It's just Danny." He smiled.

"Okie dokie, Danny!" She agreed happily. She then skipped way from them and down the hallway until she faded into nothing. At that moment, the lunch bell rang, signaling the students to head for their next classes.

"Man, you two have the dramatic timing of comic book superheroes." Isabel said.

"Let's hope we don't continue the trend to the point where we're all late for class." Duncan laughed.

End of School.

Danny exited the front doors and made it to the sidewalk before Troy and his gang found him.

"Hey pipsqueak." Troy said.

"What do you want now?" Danny asked, exasperated.

"Me and the boys were thinking. Which we usually don't do when it comes to nerds and friends of freaks like you."

"Wait, you guys are capable of thinking?" Danny gasped, pretending to be shocked.

"Don't push your luck against all of us." One of the boys growled.

"Anyway, we came up with an idea. If you can pass our test, we'll stop bullying you. Maybe, just maybe, if you do it real well, we'll quit bugging your friends so much." Troy smirked.

"What's the catch, Troy?" Danny scowled, but gave them his full attention. The gang looked around at each other and then the crowd around them.

"Nah, there are way too many people around right now." Troy sighed. "Meet me and the guys at the abandoned warehouse by the junkyard, tonight at ten."

"And if I don't show?" Danny looked at him suspiciously. Troy turned to walk away, but stopped and said, "If you don't, then you won't have another chance like this again." With that, they all left.

Danny stood there and watched them disappear around the corner. _Great, just great. Now what? Do I actually follow through with this?_ He pondered. Danny shook his head and began his own trek home, arguing with himself.

Once he got there, he found that he was home alone again. However, there was no note from anyone. Danny looked around. The house was slightly dirty, with toys here and there with a few scattered socks. _Did Allie leave it this way on purpose?_ He thought with a sigh. Danny casually began walking around and picking up everything. It all fit in his arms, making it much easier to put them where they belong.

Once that was done, he peeked into the kitchen. Unlike last time, the sink was empty. Danny then hopped downstairs to see that the twins had actually succeeded in keeping the place clean. With nothing to do, he went into his room and turned his computer on. _Let's see if the internet has anything new on ghost-related activity… other than stuff about me._

Just then, he heard the garage start to open. When he brought his attention back to the screen, there was nothing. Danny moaned and shut the monitor off, exiting his room to meet the family.

"Darn! Thought we would beat you back." Brandon laughed, hanging up the car keys. "Allie's got the makings for BLT's. Hope you're hungry."

"Aren't I always?" Danny smiled. Katie and Max ran to Danny from seemingly nowhere and started happily raving about their day.

"I got 100% on my spelling test!" Katie squealed.

"During tag, I was never 'It'!" Max proclaimed.

On and on they went, each grabbing one of Danny's arms and pulling him in opposite directions. Then the happy rant became an argument.

"Max, what are you doing? Danny's gonna have a tea party with me!"

"Tea party? Blech! Me and Danny are going to make a new high score on-"

"But Danny said he would!"

"He also promised to play with me!"

Danny struggled to resist the temptation of breaking free from both of them. _Can't deny the fact I said I'd play with both of them._ He criticized himself for not thinking they would want that wish granted at the same time.

"Enough, both of you." Danny calmly, but firmly stated. He raised his arms up to a 90-degree angle, bringing the twins off the floor. They immediately stopped fighting. Danny realized the mistake he made when the two of them looked at each other with devilish grins.

"Hey Danny…" Katie started.

"Would you pick us up and drop us?" Max finished.

"What have I done?" Danny cried, putting them down and fainting onto the floor, all dramatic like. The twins quickly flopped onto his belly. Max accidently half-landed on Danny's chest, right on the wounds. Danny swallowed a scream and quickly released it as a long breath of air.

"Play with us! Play with us!" They chanted.

"I can't… get… up…" Danny whispered, suddenly exploding into life and tickling both of them. The twins whooped and squealed with laughter, rolling all over the place to avoid being tickled.

"Alright kids. Help me set up dinner and you can have it sooner." Allie called from the bowels of the kitchen. The trio got up and hurried over, hunger as their motivator.

10:00 that night.

Danny had chosen to wear a normal jacket instead of the hoodie, mainly because he wanted something easy to remove if the situation called for it. He stood in front of the building Troy had told him about. He had guessed right; the place was falling apart. It was perfect, however, for people to meet away from prying eyes.

"About time you got here." Troy said as he walked forth from the shadows. His gang followed suit shortly after.

"Yeah, didn't get lost on the way. What's this test you've got for me?" Danny asked.

"Firstly, do you have the guts to do anything?" Troy questioned.

 _If only they knew…_ "Yeah."

"The know-how to accomplish any goal?"

"Yes! Just cut to the chase." Danny said.

"Your test…" Troy grinned deviously and looked around at his comrades. "Is to get a Kaiju scale."

"A Kaiju scale? Are you nuts?" Danny inquired. "I accept your challenge. Any rules for me before I take off?"

"Just that the scale can't be taken from molted skin!" Troy cackled.

 _This would be a death wish for anyone else!_ "You mean… from a live Kaiju? Take it directly from the hide?"

"How else would you get a scale without breaking the rule? You've got twenty four hours to collect said item or the deal is off." Troy snarled.

"I'll have the scale for you long before the deadline." Danny raced away from the group before anything else could be said. _Long before._ He smiled.

12:01 am.

Danny had flown from the junkyard to the edge of the canyon lands, changing into Phantom and careful to avoid being spotted. There he landed to scope the area and catch a quick breather.

"I know the Kaiju have lairs and dens all over this place. Just need to find one. Heh. How hard could that be?" Danny chuckled nervously. "This would be easier if Duncan was with me… but I'm not gonna force him into this. Besides, Troy would say that's cheating." He added. Danny leapt into the air to scout for any sign of a Kaiju lair.

Half an hour passed and Danny landed on a large rock, exasperated. _How hard is it to find a Kaiju?_ He sighed.

Something crunched a rock behind him.

Danny froze in place, somehow finding the strength to turn around. It had not been a rock being smashed, but moving. A massive hole in the ground revealed a Kaiju, coming out and yawning. _It just woke up._ Danny inferred, jumping down from his perch and hiding. The titanic, bipedal being walked over Danny, never noticing him. Danny couldn't make out the details of the beast in the dark night, but it gave him an idea.

 _I'll just grab a scale and go. No need to fight longer than I have to. In this darkness, it won't be able to follow me anyway._ Danny flew into the sky, slowly moving closer and closer to the Kaiju's back. He carefully analyzed the area, hoping for a loose scale.

 _Bingo._ Danny grinned and floated to the scale. The Kaiju continued walking, blissfully unaware of Danny, deeper into the canyon lands. Danny grasped the scale, following the Kaiju's up and down movements. Then, he jerked on the scale, hard. The beast screeched and flailed its claws around, searching for its invisible attacker. Danny dodged every swing, getting farther away with each swipe.

Once he was out of reach, Danny took off toward the city, clutching the warm scale close to his chest. _If I was keeping this, it would make a great chest plate. It's definitely big enough for it._ He thought. Danny finally reached his house and fell into the routine of checking before entering. With no one around, he easily and quietly slipped into his bedroom. He proceeded to slide the scale under his bed, falling onto the mattress afterward.

 _Just you wait and see, Troy. Not everyone is who you decide you want them to be._ Danny sighed as he drifted into deep sleep.


	18. Chapter 16

**HELLO, READERS!**

 **Seriously, though. Hi. I do this enough already. I am a very weird person. But if I wasn't, no one would be here, since this story would not exist.**

 **...Is it weird to... fangirl over the reviews?**

 **Oh well. I really enjoy everyone's reviews, the good, the bad,(no review is bad) and the hilarious.**

 **READ!**

Wednesday, November 16th.

It was that morning, when he was getting ready for school, that Danny realized he had no place to hide the scale between now and the presentation. _Well, I goofed up this time._ With time dwindling, Danny opted to just shove it in his backpack and hope for the best. It took all he had to cover it up and close the zippers without ripping the bag itself.

"Danny, are you ready to go?" Allie asked from the other side of his door.

"Yeah! Be right out." Danny replied and swung the bag over his back. He rushed out of his room and across the house to the front door, where Allie intercepted him.

"I don't know why you have such a problem with leaving on time," She sighed, "But please be careful and eat this on your way." Allie held out a shiny, red apple.

"Thanks, I will. See you later!" Danny said as he grabbed the apple and left. Halfway down the block he looked at his watch. Ten minutes to the bell. Danny kicked himself into high gear and practically flew along the sidewalk, stopping only for red lights. While he was stopped, he would take a bite of the apple, just to keep himself busy while waiting.

At long last, the school appeared into view, which equaled another glance at a watch. Five minutes. _I'm gonna make it!_ As he got closer, he realized that emergency vehicles and police cars had taped up the front of the building, with all the students standing in close-knit circles outside. Danny's mouth gaped at the sight of the school itself: more than half of it had been reduced to rubble.

"Danny! There you are!" Jenna yelled to him, her hand waving in the air. She was standing with the rest of the group.

"What happened?" Danny asked as soon as he got over.

"Kaiju. Apparently, this happened earlier this morning when no one was here. Which I can appreciate." Duncan answered. "But that leaves the question: why?"

 _I bet I know the reason._ Danny cursed himself. "Has anyone seen Troy?"

"Don't know. But I don't care to find out either." Isabel replied.

"That's a bit harsh, don't you think?" Kenny scolded.

"Harsh? With everything they've ever done to us, why should I care to know where they are?"

"She has a point." Jenna agreed.

Danny slipped away from his friends to start looking for Troy. He soon found them hidden near the portables, which had escaped the destruction.

"Hey nerd. What do you want?" Troy greeted.

"I want you to hold up your end of the deal." Danny grinned and pulled the scale from his backpack, shining it in all of their faces. "One genuine Kaiju scale, straight from the hide."

"Pfft. What proof do you have that this scale even came from a Kaiju?" Troy criticized, taking the scale from Danny and looking it over. "If this is fake, then bravo for closeness."

"It's not fake!" _How can I prove that?_ Danny contemplated. He stared at the scale for a minute, then turned to face the ruined school. "…Holy crud…"

"What's the matter, Fenton?" Troy asked. Danny looked at him, but he had dollar signs in his eyes over the Kaiju scale.

"Well Troy, let's say you had a dollar sticking out of your pocket and I take it. If you couldn't get revenge on me, what would you do?" Danny inquired.

"I'd find some other punk to beat up and take his dollar." Troy replied. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I… uh… did the same thing with a Kaiju and its scale. Looks like the 'other punk' it took its anger out on was the school."

Troy paused from glossing over the scale and stared at the school, then the scale. Back and forth until he finally looked at Danny.

"That's your proof? A freaking analogy?"

"Pretty much."

Troy burst into laughter and his posse joined in. A sinking feeling entered Danny's gut as he waited for them to stop.

"Oh man. It's been a long time since I've laughed that hard." Troy sighed and wiped away a tear. "Fine. For that, we'll stop bugging you so much. Your friends though… something else will have to happen."

"Seriously?! I spent half of last night just trying to find a Kaiju!" Danny complained.

"And everyone wishes they or the army could find a Kaiju that fast. Sorry bud, your story will never check out for anyone. But, feel free to ask a single favor from me or the boys." Troy smirked. He then motioned for his friends to follow as he walked away. Danny grit his teeth as he made his way back to his own friends.

"There you are Danny. Where'd you go?" Duncan asked.

"Had to find a working bathroom. No luck." He smoothly lied.

"Aw man. I'm needing to go too." Isabel moaned.

Principal Dave's voice came over a megaphone to announce, "All students are excused to return home. Obviously there won't be any school until construction is complete, so the district will let you all know when to come back via phone call."

"Finally." Isabel sighed. "I can go use the bathroom at home."

Friday, November 18th. Isabel's House.

The group relaxed in Isabel's backyard, having just finished raking the whole thing.

"I'm glad that construction is overlapping Thanksgiving break." Isabel said. "It just means more time for all of us to hang out without having to worry about Troy or any bell ringing."

"You and the rest of the school." Danny added before jumping off a tree branch into the freshly raked, crisp, pile of leaves.

"Danny!" Jenna yelped as the leaf wave washed over her. Everyone else began laughing. Jenna took the leaves that stayed on her and tossed them at the others. While they ran away from angry Jenna, Danny slowly rose from the smashed pile, head first and feet firmly on the ground.

"I have come to collect your souls…" Danny groaned like a zombie. Isabel took one look at Danny and squealed, happy to follow suit.

"Run, run! Danny's playing grim reaper!" She said and bolted. Everyone laughed and ran while Danny quickly flew across the ground behind them.

"Isabel!" Her mother yelled from inside. The group stopped and Danny belly-flopped onto the hard ground. Isabel's mother opened the sliding glass door and poked her head through.

"Do you and your friends want something to eat?" She asked.

"Yes we do!" Isabel answered for them. They all walked into her massive house, where a butler stood waiting with a tray of ice-cold sodas for them.

Then Isabel took them on a small tour through her house. Everyone decided to stop at the indoor cinema. _This looks a lot like Sam's home theater._ Danny mentally commented. _And if I'm lucky, I'll be home in a week._ He started thinking about what he would do once he got home, when a bowl of popcorn suddenly found residence in Danny's arms, snapping him back to reality.

"What are we watching?" Jenna finally asked.

"How about a horror? See how much it takes to terrify a real ghost." Duncan chuckled and nudged Danny with his elbow.

"Danny? Are you feeling okay? You seem out of it." Kenny probed.

"I just… I don't know how to explain this." Danny muttered. "Thanksgiving, in the graveyard, at midnight, I've got a chance to go home. The one I was born and raised in. The world I miss. It… could be a while before… I ever get to see any of you again." He hesitantly explained.

Everyone fell silent. It was several minutes before anything could be said.

"That's… that's great Danny. You have said that you've been stuck here, in our world for a long time now. If there's a chance for you to see your family again… then go ahead. Take it." Jenna said, lips quivering.

"What is this chance, exactly?" Duncan recovered from the shock.

"A ghost portal. I've only got five minutes to find it and get through before it closes for another year." Danny replied.

"And if you fail to get through the portal…" Isabel started.

"Then I'll be here even longer." Danny finished. "You guys and the Nebel family are the reasons I don't want to leave."

"Don't let us get between you and your reunion. Besides, didn't you say you'd be able to come back and visit someday?" Kenny exhaled.

"Yeah. I definitely want to do that." Danny smiled.

"Alright! Group hug." Isabel announced. Everyone pulled together for the giant bear hug, even Duncan.

"Whew!" Jenna gasped when the hug dissipated. "Now that's everyone's happy again, time to decide on a movie."

"I liked Duncan's idea of horror! Scare the Ghostly King himself." Kenny added.

"Aw come on! Why are you so interested in scaring me?"


	19. Chapter 17

**So... I don't know what to do for an a/n for once. But, I know I answer reviews here for a single reason: For everyone who has the same question about something but just didn't want to say it.**

 **I don't know... is that rude of me?**

 **Let's cut the sentimental crap and get to it.**

 **READ!**

Friday, November 18th. M.E.G.T.A.F. headquarters.

Blitz made his way down to the science labs, his face stern as always.

"Welcome, Commander." An automated voice greeted him as Dr. Pytel's door opened. The doctor didn't turn around, but continued her work at her desk as she said,

"Morning, sir. You are just in time! I think I've figured out a few of our problems." Dr. Pytel made a bit of room for Blitz at the desk. "Firstly, the conundrum with Danny Phantom. I compared the residue from the school to some samples from- what's his face- Jackal."

"How'd that prove?"

"Jackal's DNA; so to speak; is purely ectoplasmic. The difference is that Danny Phantom's is not."

"Really. What makes his different?"

"You shouldn't interrupt me. Then you'd get your answers faster. Anyway, I was pretty confused for a while. I got the idea to test the residue with other DNA combinations. There's no Kaiju matches whatsoever, which is a relief. But then… I finally realized the missing sequence in this puzzle is human. Blitz, I conducted several experiments to verify my theory and I know I'm right when I say: Danny Phantom is half human and half ghost."

"Excuse me?"

"Aw, no excuses necessary. Analysis states there is very little variance between Danny Phantom and Duncan. Besides the Kaiju and ghost part. I wouldn't be surprised if these two became friends, with all they probably have in common."

"Exceptional work Doctor. You said there was little variance. What is that?"

"It was painstaking, but the variance is in fact, origin. We already know that Duncan was born half-and-half, but that's not so with Phantom. My breakdown of the sample indicates that the ghost half was introduced at a much later date, suggesting that the boy was born wholly human."

"I see. Thank you doctor. Report anything new to me please." Blitz commanded and exited the room. Dr. Pytel sighed and returned to her work. Her computer suddenly began beeping. She hurried over to it and gasped once she had read the screen.

"Commander Blitz!"

Outside the Nebel house. 10:23 am.

Danny laid on the roof tiles, counting clouds. _With no school, there's nothing to do._ He mentally sighed, but it came out as a deep breath and exhale. _And everyone's too busy right now to hang out._ Cloud total: six. Danny pulled out his phone to check the screen, which had no new messages.

"Now what?" He asked himself. The universe, as expected, did not reply. After a while, Danny jumped down from the roof and went inside.

"Back so soon?" Allie chuckled. She apparently had nothing to do as well, seeing as how she was watching T.V.

"Yeah." Danny replied. "Where is everyone?"

"Brandon wanted to do some shopping and the kids wanted to go with him." She answered.

At this point, Danny's conscience was talking to him. _It's just the two of you. Thanksgiving is in less than a week. You've been telling yourself for days that_ they _would need to know why you are going to disappear. Why not now?_

"Danny, are you alright?" Allie suddenly asked.

 _It's the perfect time._ His conscience said. _Just tell her._

"Actually, I… I've been meaning to… tell you something." Danny sputtered. _Allie is understanding. She couldn't possibly get mad over this._ He tried to assure himself.

"Ok." Allie turned off the T.V. "Come sit down." She pat the seat next to her. Danny quickly sat down, unable to meet her gaze directly.

"I… What I'm about to tell you is something Katie already knows, but she can't fully understand what it means. But please, let me be the one to tell Brandon and Max. Promise?"

"Of course. Take your time." Allie encouraged softly.

Danny took a deep, shaky breath.

"I don't even know where to start."

"That's fine."

"Okay, maybe I do. Um… well, for starters, I'm… half-human." He finally got it out. Danny brought his eyes up to Allies'. Her face was blank with surprise. Danny could see questions forming in her head.

"Half-human." Allie choked out. "I guess… that makes…some sense."

"I know, I should have told you and Brandon so much sooner. I'm sorry I didn't; I was just afraid of how you two would react. Please, don't be mad…" Danny trailed off.

"Why would I be mad? Yes, this is something you could have shared a long time ago." Allie gathered herself. "But, you're a young boy surrounded by strangers and living in a place you've never been. Secrets this big aren't just something to give out freely."

"You're taking this better than I thought you would." Danny commented.

"So am I. Well Danny, now that you have started, I better let you finish." Allie smiled.

"The other half is ghost. And I'm not from this world, which is why the foster agency couldn't find my parents."

"Not from this world? How'd you get here?"

"There's this place called the Ghost Zone…"

It had taken Danny about an hour to explain and answer Allie's questions. Along with his plans to leave on Thanksgiving night.

"Danny, if you manage to leave this world, will you ever be able to come back?"

"I want to. Just to visit, but there should be a way for that."

Allie was about to ask another question when they heard the garage open.

"About Katie, she only knows that I'm a halfa. Nothing else."

A quick nod from Allie comforted Danny before two kids flew from the door and onto him. Brandon barely managed to catch the door before it shut on him while he carried multiple grocery bags in both arms.

"Don't worry about dinner tonight, I've got it covered." Brandon said.

"Thank you sweetie." Allie replied.

It was a while before the twins left Danny alone. He made it to his bedroom and closed the door to his haven. Just then he heard and felt his phone buzz in his pocket. A text from Duncan.

" _Danny, I just saw a large troop of M.E.G.T.A.F. soldiers enter town. Can't be good if that many are here. Lay low?"_

Danny shut the blinders on his window and carefully peeked out. Sure enough, there were armed forces down the street, coming his way. Although there weren't any tanks, there was a single truck with a large canopy obscuring Danny's view of whatever was inside. _Whatever's going on, it can't be good._ He winced. Then he remembered the phone in his hand.

" _Can I come over?_ " He sent. Danny watched the unit come closer until Duncan replied.

" _Yeah._ "

" _Be right there._ "

Once the last bit had been sent, Danny intangibly went underground, to leave the house quietly, shifting to invisibility to fly past M.E.G.T.A.F. After he passed them, however, Danny became worried for his foster family. He grit his teeth and flew back. Blitz stood on the doorstep, waiting for the door to be opened. Katie answered it.

"Hi." Katie squeaked.

"Hello. Are your parents home?" Blitz asked her gently. Katie glanced at the soldiers and their guns before nodding and running back into the house. Not even a minute passed and Allie reopened the door.

"Oh my! What's going on?" She gasped.

"Ma'am, M.E.G.T.A.F. is here to secure a dangerous entity. Please allow us to search the premises for our target." Blitz calmly explained.

"…Who is this target of yours?" Allie inquired.

"Here we go." Blitz sighed. "Our target is a powerful ghost. Move aside for my troops."

"Ghosts don't exist." Allie scoffed.

Danny landed silently on one knee above the adults, on the roof. He suppressed a laugh, since he could easily hear the lie in her voice. Blitz obviously did not have that luxury.

"Mrs. Nebel, this is serious. This is your last chance to peacefully let us through." Blitz's tone was losing its cool.

"No." Allie huffed.

"Very well. Alright boys, move in. AND PUT EVERYTHING BACK WHEN YOU'RE DONE!" Blitz yelled.

The waiting troops swiftly entered the house and swarmed the whole place. A few soldiers stood back to prevent the family from interfering or getting hurt. Allie was dragged to her husband and children in the living room. There they huddled and watched M.E.G.T.A.F comb the house, without tearing through drawers or anything of the like.

Blitz stood by the front door, content to let his men do their job. Outside, Danny had sent one more text to Duncan.

" _JK. I'm their target. Might want to come by M.E.G.T.A.F.'s base later._ "

With that, Danny hopped down from the roof. He entered the house and walked to an open space in front of Blitz, dropping the invisibility.

"I understand you're here for me." Danny calmly stated.

"Yes." Blitz answered. Into a mic on his arm brace, he ordered, "All units prepare to move out."

Danny watched the soldiers run past him and scurry to their positions with various vehicles.

"Hands, please." Blitz asked. Danny held out his arms, to which Blitz handcuffed, laser-like beams securing his wrists. The metal between the energy beams had to be four inches thick. Danny soon saw the unmistakable green glow of the material, telling him he would have a very hard time trying to escape.

"What the crap is going on?!" Brandon questioned with an unnecessarily loud voice.

"Allie, you'll have to tell him what I told you." Danny tried to give her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about me."

He didn't get the chance to hear Allie's reply, as Blitz had grabbed the cuffs and pulled him outside.

"You may be a good kid, Danny. But, for safety purposes you'll have to get in that." Blitz gestured his thumb to the truck. He led Danny to the back and hefted him inside.

"Is that…" Danny started, but did not finish. A capsule, matching the one Jackal had been taken in.

"A gas cell pod. This one has been modified. It's much stronger than the previous version, the one you probably remember." Blitz finished.

Danny nodded. M.E.G.T.A.F. soldiers; even with helmets on; Danny could tell were wary, even as Blitz pushed him inside the pod. Instantly the glass hatch shut and Blitz was typing code into a colored panel.

"On the bright side, you'll be out cold before you know it." Blitz sighed.

Danny said nothing. White, sweet smelling smoke began to fill the capsule and Danny's eyelids started to droop. Like Blitz had said, his vision was black before he knew it.

 **DUN DUN DUN!**


	20. Chapter 18

**I'M SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT I HAVE NO EXCUSES!**

 ***bows to you***

 **Anyway, I've been overloaded with new ideas for stories, so I might make some of them! Danny Phantom based, of course. :)**

 **I realize that answering reviews here in the AU can be a bit too open, so I'll only answer ones that have questions others want to ask but didn't, or the ones that can have fun replies to. Okay? Okay!**

 **To Guest: Am I an evil kaiju? Yes, yes I am. Belloc ordered me to record these events for whatever reason, but human computers are so gosh dang small! *ponders a rampage***

 **That's all for now, so as usual,**

 **READ!**

Saturday, November 19th.

Danny finally woke up. He wasn't wearing the cuffs, nor in the capsule anymore, instead he was in a heavily furnished white room. Everything about it seemed like a normal bedroom; shelves with books, a clock that provided the date, even a separate bathroom. All except for the green glowing, steel, bolted door. Danny walked over to the door and peeked through the eye slot. Like many of the other rooms nearby, there were guards posted outside.

He backed away from the door, sub-consciously putting his hand on his forehead. _This isn't good… I should've thought this through._ _Who knows how long I'll be here._ As Danny sat on the bed, he noticed a table with a bottle and a note on it. He walked over and picked up the bottle. 'Ointment' was written on the label. Still holding the bottle, he lifted the note and looked over it.

" _Scans showed us the stitches on your chest. Give this a try."_ With no signature for who wrote it. Danny sighed and followed the advice. He undressed enough to see that about half of the wounds had scabbed over while the other half was very close to having the skin back together. Danny gagged at the first whiff of the translucent cream, but ignored it once application began. Surprisingly, the ointment numbed what was left of the pain and Danny could feel the healing process being sped up.

Once he had finished, the door was unlocked and both Dr. Pytel and Blitz came in.

"Mornin', sunshine." Blitz greeted.

"Hello, Danny! I'm Dr. Pytel. I didn't get the chance to properly introduce myself when you were last here. You don't mind if we do a few analysis tests, do you?" She hurriedly asked.

"Uh… what do you mean by a few?" Danny winced.

"When she says a few, she actually means: this will take a while." Blitz groaned.

Dr. Pytel placed a steel bracelet on Danny's wrist. "This is for blood pressure." She explained as she pressed different buttons. Once she was finished, the bracelet expanded to the point where Danny could feel his pulse against the cold metal.

"70/120. Huh. No different than any other boy your age. Not what I was expecting at all." Dr. Pytel commented, quickly pulling out a clipboard Danny had not seen earlier, and scribbling on it.

Danny cringed when he realized what Blitz had meant. Dr. Pytel was no evil scientist, yet was lost in her research. Friendly for sure, but even that couldn't make Danny comfortable in knowing he was just another new test subject. Dr. Pytel eventually led Danny to a room with an examination table.

"I need you to lay down and just stay still. Heck, the table doesn't even have restraints." She pointed out.

Danny gingerly put himself on the cold metal, which quickly made itself known through the back of his shirt. Danny looked around as Dr. Pytel began typing commands into her computer.

"By the way Danny," She suddenly said, "How did you receive such lacerations on your chest?"

Danny glanced down at his hoodie where the cuts would be. "I got into a fight with Duncan." Looking up, he added, "I still won though."

"A fight with Duncan? That would explain Commander Blitz's little report of seeing Duncan with minor injuries of his own the other day…"

He quickly noticed that Blitz was leaning against a wall by the door, overlooking the whole operation with no emotion on his face. The table was soon overlapped by a hollow, circular device that moved up and down vertically as a light scanned Danny's body.

"Hmm… it would appear that my hypothesis isn't completely wrong…" Dr. Pytel mumbled.

"And what was your hypothesis?" Danny asked.

"Well, I had estimated that there would be much more ghostly evidence inside you. I figured it would measure out half and half, with you being as you are, after all." She chuckled light-heartedly. "But the scan shows about thirty to forty percent of your being has supernatural activity. As in, the ghost part is regulating your body at only a slightly higher level, as opposed to a normal person. I wonder why that didn't show up in the earlier test."

"I think it's because I was a bit more relaxed at that time. Examination tables and I don't go together too well." Danny said, getting up after the scanner was out of the way.

Blitz sighed and walked over to Dr. Pytel, pulling her away. "Compared to Belloc, how much of a threat is this kid?" He inquired, keeping his voice low.

Dr. Pytel scoffed. "A threat? I can't determine any comparisons until more tests are done. And even with that, pitting a Kaiju and a ghost against each other is illogical. It would be like equating a cat versus a lion, for all we know."

Danny scowled. _Seems they've forgotten, or have no idea, that I have super hearing._ The two continued to bicker softly, but for things Danny had no interest in listening to. Instead, he created a small ball of energy in his hand and started spinning it. The ball's outer light shone in a pattern similar to moonlight on ocean waves, while the inner spun like a top in a linear fashion, shifting as Danny wanted it to.

"I don't care! This boy is only capable of destruction!" Blitz suddenly yelled. Dr. Pytel looked at him as if he had turned into a Kaiju before turning to Danny. He stared right back, while the energy ball dissipated into nothing.

"Just destruction, huh? Is that why I have an A in your class?" Danny smirked. Dr. Pytel snickered at first, then started laughing.

"How on earth is that funny?" An annoyed Blitz focused on Dr. Pytel.

"Because it's true! And the rest of his grades almost look just as good." She finished with a happy sigh. "Alrighty. Danny, please lay back down on the table and turn into Phantom. There's another scan I want to do."

Danny groaned, but did as he was asked. _How long will I be here? Might as well get some questions out of the way._ "Hey Dr. Pytel, why am I getting a 'homey' cell instead of something matching Belloc's?" The drone of the scanner almost drowned out his question.

"Hmm?" She turned from the computer to face him. "Oh, well, it's not easy finding or building furniture the size of Kaiju. Besides, we believe Kaiju live in underground caves anyway, so Belloc is more at home that way. I think. He hasn't said anything against it, that I know of." The doctor started mumbling toward the end and it became unintelligible once she went back to the computer.

Back by the door, Blitz groaned and picked up where she left off. "Also because you are still half-human. M.E.G.T.A.F. isn't some evil organization bent on mistreating in-human beings."

"Oh." Was all Danny could come up with. _That could be the only reason._ He thought. Dr. Pytel wandered over to him and sputtered some words about the other tests she wanted to do. Danny only sighed and dropped the back of his head to the table.

Duncan's POV

" _JK. I'm their target. Might want to come by M.E.G.T.A.F.'s base later._ " Danny's text read.

"Uh… what?" Duncan wondered aloud, staring at the tiny screen. Margret paused from her spontaneous burst of cleaning and peeked around the corner from the living room into the kitchen to ask,

"What's going on?"

"This little text tells me Danny's not coming and M.E.G.T.A.F.'s why." He replied. Duncan hurried past his worried mother and over to a coat rack and started combing through it for his favorite red jacket.

Margret sighed. "That can't be good…" She hummed for a moment before continuing, watching Duncan put the jacket on. "What are you going to do about it?"

Duncan stopped with one arm in a sleeve and looked down at his phone, still open to Danny's message, yet the screen was dimming.

"I'm going to do what I do best-" Duncan announced. "Help Danny and annoy M.E.G.T.A.F." With that, he put away his phone and started preparing to leave.

Margret calmly walked over to her son and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. Duncan stopped what he was doing to meet her gaze.

"Duncan, you know I'm all for action when it calls for it. But I believe you should wait."

"But Danny-"

"Can hold out until you can get to him. You told me he is the Ghost King and that he earned that title. I'm sure Danny will be fine." She assured Duncan, adding a soft smile at the end.

"For his sake, I hope you're right." Duncan winced.

 **Had a small thought of finishing the story at about the same time it's occurring. Should I do that, or give in to popular demand of continuing the story without making everyone wait so long? XD**


	21. Chapter 19

**I'M BAAAACK!**

 **This time, my goal is to finish this story by Thanksgiving. If I don't, you have permission to be very mad. Also, I should have looked at a calendar before asking the 'same time as story uploading' thing. XD**

 **Answering time!**

 **want to know: What was the gas that knocked out Danny? I'm no expert, but I imagined it as a form of anesthesia and/or chlorophyll. Or maybe M.E.G.T.A.F. got their hands on whatever Bertrand used on Danny back in 'Doctors' Disorders'. (S2E2 It's sad I have this memorized.)**

 **Shout out to DRAGONDAVE45! Awesome guy and thanks for the support!**

 **If anyone is interested, try out his Monster High: Primal Hearts! (Firebreather X Monster High) I love it!**

 **From here,**

 **READ!**

Monday, November 20th.

Duncan's POV

"That's it." Duncan said unexpectedly, just after finishing breakfast. "I can't stand doing nothing! I'm going to help Danny now."

Margret simply stared at Duncan from the table as he stomped over to the sink and tossed his dishes in.

"Duncan-" She began.

"No, mom. Don't try to stop me." He harshly interrupted, and then softly added, "Just wish me luck."

"…Okay. But please be careful." She said as she stood up, walked over, and gave him a hug. Silence came between them as Duncan hurried over to the coat rack, grabbed his jacket and left the house.

Danny's POV

Danny belly-flopped onto his bed. Dr. Pytel had finally finished all the tests her brilliant mind could come up with, without going too far, in a matter of days. He glanced up at the digital clock on the wall. 7:28. _Oh hey, the guards are about to rotate._ Right on cue, someone outside said,

"See you at the end of the shift, Jeremy."

The other didn't say anything as they traded posts. Once there were two guards at his door, now there was only one. M.E.G.T.A.F. had relaxed the amount of security around Danny in the time he had been there. Moreover, Mr. Dayshift was much more sociable, which Danny enjoyed. He got up and quickly made his way over to the eye slot.

"Hey Brian."

"Mornin' Danny. Aren't you tired?"

"Nah. I blame pent up energy for that. Besides, I still have a big story to tell. Where were we?"

"You and your mother had just landed after being kicked out of a plane."

"Oh yeah! Even though we didn't have our luggage, she had a machete tucked away in her boot…"

Duncan's POV

Duncan's wing beat quickened once he reached the edge of the canyon lands. _Why do secret organizations build their headquarters so far away from civilization? Seriously, the gas bill has to be huge._ It wasn't long until the 'front doors' came into view. Duncan dove into the grooves of the earth to keep the element of surprise. Still moving at high speed, he zigzagged between the rocks, easily avoiding all of them.

He stopped a short distance away and kept behind a few large rocks. Peeking out around them, Duncan easily saw two tanks and several foot soldiers standing guard at the entrance. _Good, they didn't see me coming._ Duncan noted. _And dang… if only I had Danny's invisibility._ He wished. Even from where he was hiding, he could tell the guards were bored to tears.

"This can't be too hard, can it?" Duncan muttered to himself. "I bet the tank drivers are practically asleep too."

Just then, the cylinder of one of the tanks slowly turned to face Duncan's location. He could hear the rocket launcher begin to hiss; a sign of it being warmed up.

"Or they had their coffee this morning." Duncan panicked, but managed to leap away from the rocks as the missile was fired. The explosion sent him flying, then skidding to the feet of the guards. They all stood over him, scowls on their faces.

"Uh… hi guys! Did ya miss me?"

Before he could realize what was going on, he was sitting in an office, in front of a desk with a plaque saying 'Commander Barnes' on it. Duncan glanced behind him to the motionless escorts. The large guns they held made him shudder. The steel door to the left hissed as the panel access on the other side was activated. Blitz walked in, took his seat and crossed his arms while glaring at Duncan.

"Want to tell me what you're doing, young man?"

"I uh… you see…" Duncan spluttered, then got an idea. "Something didn't feel right this morning, so I came to see if Dr. Pytel could help." He gave his biggest grin.

"Uh-huh." Blitz raised an eyebrow. "Do you realize that Dr. Pytel is very busy most of the time and has to set aside time for your appointments?"

"The topic never came up; no." Duncan replied. _That much is true. I always thought she was so bored, that when I came in, it was just something to do._

Blitz sighed and pinched his nose. "Duncan, did you forget this agency is designed to track and fight Kaiju? You're not a problem as of now, but… I'll be lenient with you. Instead of spending the rest of the day in a cell, I'll be calling your mother to come take you home."

 _Right, Kaiju fighters. Smart move Duncan, thinking you could just come knocking on their door._ "Don't suppose I could… have a quick chat with… my dad before she gets here?" Duncan suggested, gazing down at the floor. Blitz stared at him.

"Alright… since you're already here." He said, and shortly after, adding under his breath, "Must not have gotten sleep or something last night…"

Blitz motioned for the escorts. They immediately stood straighter than before and began following Duncan out. _I'm such an idiot though._ He grit his teeth. He made his way through the labyrinth-like halls until he finally saw the familiar reinforced steel door.

"You guys cool to wait out here?" He turned to ask the guards. They said nothing in response. "I'll take that as a yes…" Duncan assumed. One of them swiped a card across the door's access panel and then stood off to the side with the other.

The door squeaked open with all the possible noise it could. Duncan felt goosebumps swarm over his skin while he winced. Once the metal screams stopped, he walked inside and up to the railing, just in time to have the door close loudly behind him.

"Hey dad!" He called out.

"Duncan? This is a surprise." Belloc rose from beneath the balcony. "What brings you here?"

 _How does something as big as he is hide?_ He thought. "Are you aware that Danny's here?"

Belloc growled. "I knew something was off. It's one thing to have one king as a prisoner, but two? Humph, even M.E.G.T.A.F. should know better!" His tail angrily lashed side to side. "Your friend must have his reasons to remain. I have no doubt that he is strong enough to escape if he desired so."

"He's strong alright." Duncan put a hand on his arm where a few scars had formed. "I don't get why he'd stay here, especially on a schedule like his."

Belloc's gaze fell on Duncan's grip. Without warning, he began purring. While it was soothing to listen to, the thunderous, deep rumble was shaking the platform. Something about the purr helped Duncan relax.

"You may have forgotten, Duncan," Belloc said softly, "But kings are kings for a reason."

"Thanks dad." Duncan smiled. "I think."

The static of an intercom came on. " _Duncan, your mom's here. Don't bother asking how she got here so fast, cause I have no idea._ " Blitz's voice informed.

Later that night.

Danny's POV

Night had fallen, which meant it was time for the changing of the guard. With Brian gone and the night guard, Jeremy, refusing to talk, it meant Danny had nothing to do. No tests. No story telling. No friends. He laid on his bed and stared at the clock until it hit 10:00, when the lights automatically turned off.

At that point, he formed a ball of ghost energy in his hand to illuminate the room. He immediately noticed that the energy was far brighter than he wanted it to be. Danny focused all his mind on it, but the light would not dim at all. _What's happening?_ He started breathing fast. _Why can't I control it?_ He quickly shook his hand, trying to put it out completely. It worked. Danny sat in a quiet, dark room once more.

He pulled himself together with a few deep breaths. Once he was relaxed, Danny crossed his legs and prepared for a small mediation session. _Been a while since I've done one of these._ He allowed himself to float about two feet off the bed. _Now, what could have caused my ghost ray to do that? Maybe stress? Maybe… even fear?_

Danny started to lightly hum as he thought. He was interrupted when his butt hit the ceiling. He opened his eyes to see where he was. _Ah, screw it. I'm gonna sit up here until I figure this out._

Somewhere in the M.E.G.T.A.F. base…

"Hey. Jones. Why are we posted here again?"

"Mike. Mike, Mike, Mike. We're here to make sure these guys-" He pointed with his thumb to the slumbering bodies of Abaddon and Astaroth, as well as the 'new' addition, Jackal. "don't wake up. And if they ever wake up, it's our job to make sure they A: Are put back under, and B: everyone is alerted." Jones said. "You shouldn't have to be reminded, newbie."

"Yeah yeah. Don't need to get so grumpy. Just makin' conversation." Mike replied.

The two continued to talk. Over in Jackal's cryo-pod, an eye fluttered open for a second before a fresh wave of gas entered the chamber and forced it shut. REM sleep caused the eye to squirm violently behind the safety of the eyelid. Jackal took a sharp breath, a small amount of the pale color returned to the blue face.

"…soon…" The ghost mumbled.


	22. Chapter 20

**Quick uploads! I've got my creativity back! FINALLY!**

 **I'll make this fast-**

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Tuesday, November 21st.

Danny hadn't slept a wink that night. The meditation session didn't make things better either. Somehow, he wasn't tired at all. Even so, Jeremy and Brian hadn't switched yet, leaving Danny with still nothing to do. He hadn't tried powering up his ghost rays since the last time, worried that he wouldn't be able to stop it.

"Hey Jeremy! What's today?" Danny suddenly asked.

"It's Tuesday. Have you already lost track of time in there?" Jeremy grunted in reply.

Danny said nothing in response. _That means I've got two days left. And I don't think they'll just let me out before then, anyway._ He looked around the white room. Everything a normal room needed; books, bathroom, and a bed; all except for one missing piece: a window. The one thing that reminded him that this was a prison, not a home. _I have to get out of here. It's about time I did too._

"Goin' ghost!" Danny yelled, allowing the white rings to encircle him. Right after the rings vanished, he fired his ghost rays around the frame of the door. The out of control high-energy beams tore through the metal like it wasn't there. When the circle was finished, Danny walked over to the door and kicked it over. It collapsed into the hallway with a loud smack.

Jeremy sat on the floor just out of reach of the rubble, breathing heavily.

"Sorry, Jeremy." Was all Danny said as he took off down the hall in the opposite direction. An alarm began blaring alongside several bright red lights that illuminated most of every hall. M.E.G.T.A.F. soldiers appeared from rooms adjacent to Danny, armed and aimed to fire.

Danny skidded to a stop once more soldiers blocked his route. _Crap._ He thought, watching the hall start to overflow with fighters. He quickly noticed that none of them were closing in on him, rather keeping their distance. It wasn't long until some of them parted and Blitz walked through, holding his own gun.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way." He said with a stern look on his face.

Danny looked all around him several times, starting to grin. "I'll make it easy." He chuckled, putting his hands halfway into the air with a shrug. Most of the guards lowered their guns and stared at him through tinted helmets. "For me." Danny finally added, falling down below the floor. Blitz shouted something as he did, but Danny couldn't make it out.

From there, Danny flew as fast as he could in what felt like the right way. He suddenly popped out into a massive room. He slowed down to see two titans pressed against the wall in sleeping pods. _Are these the Kaiju that Duncan told me about?_ He thought. Danny heard metal boots resounding, closing in on him in the nearby hallways. He panicked and took off upward. This time, he passed all kinds of floors and rooms. Including the men's restroom, which was thankfully empty.

Danny pushed himself harder to fly faster. Several moments passed before Danny was moving through solid rock again, and then suddenly open sky. He stopped where he was to become tangible and to take a few deep breaths of cold, fresh, morning air. _Feels like it could snow. But I don't think it will._

His thoughts were interrupted by the roar of aircraft engines. Danny easily found two jets beginning to pursue him, and moaned as he raced away yet again. This time he headed for the cover of the narrow canyons. He could hear the thrusters behind, attempting to avoid the rock walls and gain on him. Danny smirked, dodging the obstacles with ease and adding speed. He took a second to look back at the planes and how poorly they were doing in the crammed space. The canyon walls unexpectedly opened up to a vast plain.

 _Oh hey, it's the place where Duncan and I fought._ Danny realized after a quick glance around. _The craters from the fight are still there too._ He suddenly heard missiles being launched. He turned to face it in time to be hit. Danny free fell at an angle and crashed into the ground to make a long fissure rather than a crater.

Danny groaned as he sat up and shook his head. The jets circled above him like vultures, widening their radius to prepare another volley of missiles. Danny quickly stood up and readied his stance, forming ecto-energy balls in his hands. He tossed the first one at the closest jet, which exploded on contact, taking out a rear turbine. The aircraft nose-dived toward the ground and crashed in the same fashion Danny had. He watched the pilots clamber out of the cockpit and to, what he could only assume, was safety.

The other jet headed right for him and fired its own missiles, rapidly pulling out of the dive and back into the sky. Danny threw his other ghost ball at the plane and simultaneously jumped away from the missiles. Danny's shot missed while the explosion forced him to slide across the landscape.

 _I can't let this go on much longer; more troops will be here soon._ Danny figured. He went invisible and flew off toward the city, leaving a few very confused pilots in his wake.

11:00, that night.

Danny had successfully been able to hide from M.E.G.T.A.F. in the city, especially since he had returned to his human form, and they didn't have the proper equipment to hunt ghosts anyway. Under cover of the darkness, Danny made his way back to the Nebel household. He stood out on the sidewalk for several minutes, staring at the building. A soft light was on in the living room, informing Danny someone was still up watching T.V.

He took a long, slow breath. _I'm here now, so no turning back._ With his legs somewhat shaking, he walked up to the front door and gently knocked. Footsteps approached. The doorknob jiggled. The door quietly opened to Brandon's stunned face.

"Danny? What are you doing back here?" He asked, coming out and shutting the door behind him.

"I was hoping to grab a few things. Maybe sleep here tonight." Danny answered hesitantly.

"…I'm sorry, Danny. Feel free to grab your jacket, but you can't stay here."

"Why not?"

Brandon sighed deeply and ran his hand over his face, stress evident, then scratched his mustache. "I know you're a good kid Danny, you really are. However, you have strong enemies. Not a bad thing, enemies mean you're going the right way, but they are bound to follow you everywhere. And if you stayed here…" He trailed off.

"I'd be putting you and the family in danger." Danny finished.

"Yes. I hope this makes sense. It's not you that we fear, it's your enemies." Brandon explained.

"Don't worry; I get it. I'll figure out something. Though I would like to grab my hoodie."

Brandon said nothing and moved to let Danny in. Quickly and quietly, Danny walked to his room and grabbed his hoodie. He tossed it on and left his room. He was almost at the end of the hall when he heard,

"Danny?"

He turned around slowly and saw Katie, in her pajamas, rubbing her eye and holding her stuffed toy elephant. "Is that you?"

"Yeah. It's me." He whispered. She shuffled over to him and sleepily hugged him.

"Are you leaving again?" She softly asked, looking up at him.

"…Yes." He replied, returning her hug. "Don't worry about that; or me. Go back to bed, okay?"

"Okay." She yawned. She disappeared into her room, leaving Danny alone in the somewhat dark house. _Katie won't be happy that I'm going away._ He felt a tear form in his eye at the thought. He rubbed it out and walked out of the house, stopping by Brandon.

"Thanks for everything you've done for me. I couldn't have asked for anything better." Danny said. There was no reply from him. Not that one was needed. Danny tossed on the hood and shoved his hands in the pocket, making his way down the dark street.

 _Now where will I stay? I did not think this through._ He did his best to come up with solutions while he passed closed stores and restaurants. Eventually he came across an alleyway filled with garbage and miscellaneous junk. Danny sat down in the alley, just inside the building's shadow. From where he was, he could see a digital clock on a wall, reading: 11:58.

"Twenty-four hours to go, Danny. You've got this." He said, curling into a ball. "You've been through worse."

A cold breeze rushed over the city, creating all kinds of creaks and moans from older buildings. Danny shivered, despite not being cold. Something clattered further down the alley, making Danny jump.

"Is someone there?" He called out. No reply. Danny used his hand to light the narrow dump, which still didn't show what made the noise. "Hello…?" There was a shriek and a thin cat jumped over Danny and away from the alley. Danny slapped his hand over his mouth and his ghost light went out when he started to scream. It was a minute before his heartbeat returned to normal.

 _Wait a second…_ Danny lit up his hand again. The energy wasn't as bright as it had been at M.E.G.T.A.F. A small bit of concentration and the green light dimmed, then grew. _I've got control again?_ _Then what was my problem?_ Danny put it out and mulled the problem over.

Half an hour passed before it finally came to him. "I get it! Pent-up energy! Ugh, why didn't I figure this out sooner?"

Danny soon felt tired- the first time in days. And there was no way he was going to pass up the chance to sleep.


	23. Chapter 21

**Hello again! No new news, so here we go...**

 **READ!**

Wednesday, November 22nd.

 _Danny stood alone in a dark green oblivion, trying to figure out where he was. He looked around, nothing standing out at all. Until he found himself in a large shadow. He whipped around to discover a massive being towering over him. Blazing red eyes were the only thing he could make out on the beast. The dark entity snarled, shaking Danny to his core. Danny quickly shook it off and went ghost. He blasted it with his ghost rays, to no effect. It chuckled at his attempts._

 _"_ _ **I bow to no one. But it will be all who bow to me, once I'm through with you!**_ _" It howled. With that, it backhanded Danny into the swirling green masses. Danny screamed as he went spiraling out of control, farther and deeper into the unknown._

"Hey. Danny. Wake up." A familiar voice gently said.

Danny rubbed his eyes and sat up. "Kenny…?" Kenny stood over him with a worried look on his face.

"What happened to you? Why are you sleeping out here?" Kenny asked.

"Hang on- what are you doing here so early?"

"Me? I usually come into town first thing in the morning to get the bare necessities when the stores open and avoid the rush. With Thanksgiving tomorrow, I wanted to pick up a few extra things."

"Oh. I'm here because… actually, can we go somewhere private for this?"

"Sure. We can talk about it at my place. Help me run my errands first?"

Danny nodded and Kenny helped him up. Together, they hurried to the supermarket and bought breakfast, then to another store for Thanksgiving food. Danny found it odd that Kenny considered a pot roast to outweigh a ham or turkey, but he wasn't about to say anything. Time flew by between leaving the stores and reaching Kenny's trailer.

"So… want to talk about it now?" Kenny inquired while putting stuff in the fridge.

"For starters, I've been kicked out of my foster family." Danny sighed as he sat down on a chair. "Second, I busted out of M.E.G.T.A.F. yesterday. On the run with no place to go. Kenny, I don't know what I'm doing anymore."

"That explains a lot. But don't worry about it. You can chill here as long as you need to. Heck, this is just like when Duncan came back after his meeting with his dad. Though I don't think we'll be getting any phone calls this time…"

Cue the phone ringing. Kenny hurried over to pick it up.

"Hello, this is Kenny." He paused. "Hi Mrs. Rosenblatt… No, I didn't have much planned for Thanksgiving." He looked at Danny for a second. "I'd be happy to come over for dinner tomorrow. Would it be okay if I brought someone with me? Thank you very much, ma'am. Good-bye."

The phone clacked back onto the dial.

"Why didn't you just say it was me?" Danny asked, raising his eyebrow.

"You said it yourself. If M.E.G.T.A.F. is after you, then they could be monitoring phone calls. Better safe than sorry, right?" Kenny explained.

"Didn't think of that. I owe you for everything."

"Don't mention it. Besides, you already have, in a way. Troy hasn't been bullying everyone as often since he doesn't know if or how they'll retaliate."

"Really?" Danny said, surprised.

"Yeah really. I guess we've started a small rebellion against Troy. It's been mostly you and Duncan, but you've gotten others doing the same. And for that, thank you."

The rest of the day was fairly silent between them, other than Danny telling Kenny random stories, as opposed to the timeline storytelling with Brian. Night soon arrived, giving the boys an excuse to retire to bed/couch.

Thursday, November 23rd. Thanksgiving.

He and Kenny got up a bit later in the day, despite going to sleep early. Danny had no dreams that night, for which he was grateful. _Though, my nightmare from the other night could use interpretation._ He thought. Danny hadn't told Kenny the dream, and didn't think he needed to. _Kenny's done enough already._

Danny wore the hood to hide his face as they walked over to the Rosenblatt's house. It was already past noon and it took them an hour to get there, but Margret's smiling face at the door made everything better.

"Danny! It's wonderful to see that you're okay!" She exclaimed once they were inside, wrapping him in a hug as well. "And Kenny! Thank you for coming over. The more, the merrier!" Margret said, pulling him in too. Jenna and Isabel were also there.

"Hey Danny! Long time no see." Isabel grinned.

"Say what now?" Duncan finally walked in. He stopped when his eyes met Danny's. "How did you get out of M.E.G.T.A.F.'s base?"

"Let's just say that not everything is ghost-proof." Danny smiled. The girls' confused faces combined made Danny laugh. "I'll explain while we eat."

Duncan groaned and walked back into the kitchen. The group followed suit and they sat down at the table, where the most of the food and all the placemats had already been set up. Margret brought the steaming turkey out of the oven and over to the table. Danny's mouth began to water when the full power of the meats' scent hit his nose.

"Alright, let's dig in!" Margret announced.

"We're not going to say grace or anything?" Jenna asked.

"Oh! I almost forgot. How does a personal, silent prayer sound?" Margret replied. Everyone nodded in agreement. Each of them closed their eyes, slightly tilt their heads forward, and crossed their arms. About a minute passed until Margret said, "That should do it. Time to eat!"

Back at M.E.G.T.A.F.

Jackal's eyes opened slowly. The fresh wave of gas was completely ineffective in putting the ghost back to sleep. He stretched, causing the light layer of frost to fall from his body.

"Finally." Jackal exhaled noisily with a wicked smile. "Don't these humans know that repeated exposure to such a drug, for ghosts at least, creates an immunity to it?"

He kicked the glass until it shattered, setting off an alarm. Jackal's red eyes frantically looked all over the room, but homed in on the two kaiju across from him.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" He purred. He flew up to the glass of one and stared at the beast at eye level. "I have a wonderful idea in mind for you." Jackal said.

He became intangible and dove into the creature's head. Immediately the kaiju roared in pain and began flailing around, breaking the pod's glass in the process. Soldiers arrived just in time to see the titan stop moving and making noise. The brown-ish color of the 'scales' faded into a deep red color, with spines along the body glowing bright red.

"I do believe things just got interesting **.** " Jackal spoke, gazing down at the ant sized men.

"Which one is that?" One of them asked.

"I think that one is the one Belloc called Astaroth." Another answered.

Jackal laughed and raised his massive foot, sending it down on the troop. They didn't even get a scream in.

"Yes, this just got very interesting." He grinned. His mouth was now filled with rows of dagger like teeth, looking exactly like a shark. He turned and began sprinting toward the opposing wall, phasing through it.

"Good-bye prison, hello world."

After everyone had eaten their fill, they settled in the living room.

"That was a great dinner, Mrs. Rosenblatt." Kenny sighed, patting his belly.

"Thank you very much Kenny. And please, call me Margret." She said.

It was several minutes before anyone spoke again.

"So Danny. This is... pretty much your last night here, right?" Isabel inquired softly.

"Yeah. Unless I somehow miss the five minute opening." Danny replied. "Although, I wouldn't say last, since I do plan on visiting every once in a while."

"You did say that the last time we were all together." Jenna recapped.

"Well kids, instead of being sad all night, how about you make it a fun night with great memories?" Margret interjected.

Everyone's faces lit up and Duncan ran to get a few games. He brought back Uno, Twister, Sorry, Apples to Apples, and even a DVD with random trivia on it. All the sudden there was an argument about which game to start with.

"Let's start with trivia!" Jenna exclaimed.

"Why not Apples to Apples?" Kenny put in.

"Come on guys! Twister!" Isabel squealed.

"How about Sorry?" Duncan suggested.

Danny said nothing, just sitting back to watch the friendly chaos. Margret simply watched as well, until she quietly muttered,

"What did I do?"

10:30 pm

Moonlight was the only source of light for Jackal as he made his way through the canyon lands. He stopped to look back at the rising plume of smoke, the remnants of M.E.G.T.A.F.'s base. Jackal resumed his trek to the city, following the bright lights easily seen on the horizon.

"I would never have been caught, if it weren't for you, 'Your Majesty.' I'll prove to you that I'm not one to look down on." He growled as he walked.

 **DUN DUN DUN!**


	24. Chapter 22

**Next chapter is here! And I wasn't able to finish it since it's too late for that, :( , so I made the climax even longer! Hopefully you all enjoy it while I attempt to finish before next week.**

 **It's Thanksgiving, so I'll say I'm so very thankful for all the help I've had since the start of this whole thing. Including you, the one reading this, for making it this far!**

 **I loved writing this whole part and struggled not to laugh at my own jokes. I hope that you, the reader, laugh as well.**

 **READ!**

11:00 pm, Thanksgiving.

Game night was over, allowing the teens to wind down before escorting Danny to the graveyard. The walk was filled with jokes about everyone's mess-ups during the activities.

"I thought you of all people would rock at Twister!" Isabel laughed.

"I swear one of you put something slippery on the mat." Duncan grumbled.

And the little things like Jenna missing an obvious Trivia question, Kenny being ruthless at Sorry and Isabel cheating at Uno. With Danny being the victim in most cases. The graveyard entrance gates came into view, only because there were lights strung above it.

"You know, graveyards wouldn't be so creepy if they were lit better." Kenny grimaced. The gates were still unlocked, giving easy access to any visitor.

"If you think this is scary, try the graveyards in the Ghost Zone." Danny shivered at the thought.

"Well, if the graves there can freak out the Ghost King, then I don't think I want to." Jenna stated.

They stopped when Jenna's phone began buzzing. She pulled it out of her pocket to stare at the bright screen. Besides the front gates, her phone was the only source of light. Jenna said nothing as her eyes zipped back and forth across the surface.

"Bad news guys. There's-"

A powerful explosion interrupted her. The group turned to watch the fire filled smoke rise into the air when the shockwave arrived to knock them off balance.

"What was that?!" Danny shouted.

"A Kaiju has entered the city! Duncan, I believe that's your cue, right?" Jenna answered. "Also, that was the gas station, by the news helicopter's livestream."

"Alright, I'll handle this. Danny, back me up?" Duncan held out his hand. Danny quickly took it, determination filling Duncan's eyes, as well as his own.

"I've got your back." He said. Duncan nodded and morphed into his Firebreather state, turning and leaping into the air to head to battle. Danny got a running start to go ghost, after which he started flying behind Duncan. They kept their fast pace, easily reaching the heart of the city in a matter of minutes.

The Kaiju was nowhere to be seen by the time they reached the gas station. They stopped above the destruction.

"This is bad. Whichever Kaiju is responsible, they knew what to hit." Duncan observed.

"Maybe because it wasn't really a Kaiju." A booming voice behind them said. The two whipped around only to be crushed between two massive 'hands'. They fell simultaneously onto the ground, making light cracks in the asphalt.

The creature laughed. "Then again, I still look like a one. So, something in between."

Duncan groaned as he got up. "…Is that Astaroth?" He mumbled.

"You're asking the wrong guy." Danny replied, still laying down. "Though… that voice is oddly familiar."

"I'm so glad you remembered!" It cheered. "It was brief. Does 'Jackal' ring any bells?"

Danny shot upright, popping a few joints in the process. "Jackal? Then that would mean…"

Jackal started to cackle, even throwing his head back.

"I guess this confirms that a ghost can overshadow something that big." Danny leaned over to whisper. Duncan didn't say anything in return.

Giant Jackal heaved a sigh. "Now that you're here, I suppose you'll try to stop me from having fun, right?" He stared down at them with his red, energy infused eyes. "Not this time. This time, I'll have my way with you! Heck, maybe I could be the next Ghost King!"

With that, plus another crazed laugh, Jackal raised his monstrous hands. They began to fill with an odd red aura. Danny's eyes widened.

"Get clear!" He screamed. He and Duncan bolted in opposite directions. Jackal's ghost ray blasted to where they had been, completely obliterating the spot. The boys stared at it, then at each other.

"Don't get hit?" Duncan winced.

"Don't get hit." Danny confirmed.

They sprang into battle, firing ghost ray and kaiju fire at every chance. Jackal simply brushed each attack off like it were nothing, swinging his 'hands' at them and shooting his own ghost rays. The boys stayed in motion, aiming for any possible spot, until the monster ghost moved out of the way just in time for them to hit each other. They back flipped through the air until they regained equilibrium. Which was lost as quickly when Jackal spun around with his kaiju hand tendrils fully extended. Again, they crashed side by side, this time a great distance away.

"This isn't working! It's been awhile since I've been beaten this badly." Danny said, exasperated.

"No freaking duh! We need a new plan."

"A new plan…" Danny repeated.

Duncan helped Danny stand up. Jenna, Isabel and Kenny all arrived at that moment.

"Geez, leave us behind and we miss all the action." Isabel said.

"I dunno, might have been a good thing." Kenny said, pointing out the surrounding damage.

"Anything we can do?" Jenna asked. "Even the smallest thing could change the fight…"

Danny's eyes lit up. "That's it! We need another ghost to help."

"But last I heard, the ghosts around here aren't really able to fight." Isabel gently argued.

The earth began shaking before anyone could do anything. All gazes went to Jackal, running toward them.

"Move, move, move!" The team split in two and vanished into the nearby backstreets. Duncan with Jenna and Kenny, Danny with Isabel.

"Isabel, do you have your notebook?" Danny asked quietly.

"Of course. And my pen, I never go anywhere without them." She said, bringing the materials out and handing them over. Danny made a small ghost light and started scribbling on it, sticking out his tongue from effort.

"What are you doing?" Isabel questioned, trying to make out what was on the page. Danny finished with a happy sigh.

"Here." He pushed the book back into her hands. "How fast can you reach the dump?"

"From here?! Maybe fifteen minutes!" She exclaimed. Jackal heard her and crouched over the two buildings they sat in between. He growled and prepared to pull the buildings apart.

"Then get the others and hurry! You'll need all the help you can get for that." Danny said, tapping the notebook. Rubble fell down from where Jackal was holding onto the frame.

"Duncan!" Danny called out.

"On it!" He shouted in reply, running up Jackal's backside. The titan barely had time to turn around when Duncan released a long stream of fire into the back of his head. Jackal hissed in pain and let go of the structures.

"Now's your chance! Go!" Danny yelled while he pulled Isabel into the street. She nodded and motioned for the other two to follow her. Kenny and Jenna hesitated for a moment, then proceeded to run after her.

Duncan landed beside Danny, looking at the trio run.

"What…?"

"All we have to do is hold out until the cavalry arrives. Can you manage?" Danny smirked.

"Challenge accepted." Duncan grinned.

Both halfas let out a renewed battle cry and charged to the waiting Jackal. He took a deep breath and issued a roar, shaking the city to its core, accepting the contest. Jackal raised his fists and brought them down to the ground, forcing the two into the air. From there Danny put his hands together and released a large beam of continuous ghost energy. Jackal managed to block it with his hands, but had to hold them there. Duncan swooped below Danny's beam and latched onto Jackal's chest, focusing all his might into an intense, direct fire blast.

Jackal howled with rage and swiped at Duncan, who was doing his best to stay out of reach, while keeping one hand up to fend off Danny. That hand alone slowly began to falter. Jackal's eyes became frantic, going back and forth from Danny and Duncan. Jackal jumped high enough to lunge at Danny with his gaping mouth. Danny saw it coming too late and his right lower leg was caught in Jackal's jaws.

It was Danny's turn to cry out in pain. He grasped what he could of his leg with one hand and punched Jackal's face with the other. Jackal formed a devilish grin and deliberately increased the pressure. Danny writhed around, unable to get free despite adding kicks alongside his punches.

Duncan came flying from the side and landed a direct hit to Jackal's jawbone. He instantly let go of Danny and fell over. Danny freefell until Duncan caught him.

"That doesn't look good." Duncan said.

Ectoplasm was pumping freely from the injury. _Definitely not good._ Danny thought. He leaned on Duncan as he started going lightheaded.

"Gotta… wrap it." Danny exhaled slowly and painfully. Duncan laid Danny on the ground and wildly turned around in complete disorder, trying to locate something to wrap it with. He suddenly tore off a part of the bottom of his pants, quickly tying it above Danny's knee.

"That should slow it down while I find something better. Just hang in there." Duncan explained, racing away into one of the many abandoned buildings. That's when Jackal rolled over and got back up. _I can't fight until my leg is taken care of!_ Danny tensed while he helplessly watched Jackal turn to face him, from full height.

"Don't you remember what I told you? I bow to no one. But after this, it will be all who bow to me, once I'm through with you!" Jackal announced, raising his foot above Danny. Danny forced himself onto his hands and knee to jump only a few inches clear of Jackal's foot.

"And I think you forgot who you're dealing with!" He yelled back defiantly. "Danny Phantom!"

Jackal hissed angrily. He raised his foot again. This time, Duncan leapt from a building window to knock the big bully over.

"Sorry I took so long! You still good?" He asked, hurrying over while holding up medical gauze and tape.

"The usual." Danny chuckled. The two scurried into the dark lobby of some store. Danny made a small ball of energy to help Duncan see what he was doing. It took no time at all to patch Danny up.

Duncan helped Danny stand up, yet a few tries on the injured leg told them both that Danny couldn't put any weight on it.

"Good thing I can just fly, huh?" Danny said, bouncing into the air.

"Yeah. Show me what you've got."

"I've got a plan. I'll taunt him, you hit him." Danny suggested.

"It's a plan. We could argue if it's good or not." Duncan replied.

Danny rolled his eyes and soared up over the ghostly kaiju. "You look like a moron, aaaaaand I bet you are too!" He sang, cupping his hands around his mouth.

"GET OVER HERE YOU LITTLE-" Jackal raged. Duncan made a solid hit to the back of Jackal's knee, making it buckle.

"Hey Jackal! You've put on weight since I last saw you." Danny appeared in his face, spiraling in the one spot. "You really let go, didn't you?"

"Shut your mouth, halfling." Jackal snapped, catching Danny in his hand. Jackal swung around to snag Duncan in the other. "How to kill you two now…"

"That's enough!" Another voice entered the fray. A massive, smoking purple gem came from nowhere and exploded against Jackal's chest. He dropped both of them as he took a few steps backward and attempted to regain his balance.

The boys caught themselves before reaching the ground. Duncan cracked it while the tip of Danny's boot softly tapped the asphalt, then rising a few inches.

"What was that?"

"The cavalry." Danny smiled.

A horse snorted behind them.

"Uh, Danny? This horse has wings. And flaming purple hair." Duncan pointed out.

"Yep." Danny snickered at Duncan.

Its rider, a knight with purple flame for a cape, hopped down and bent down on one knee with his green sword staked in the ground in front of him.

"My apologies for arriving at such a late hour. Had I known you were here, I would have come long ago." He said.

"Duncan, this is the Fright Knight. Age-old spirit of Halloween and my commander. Fright Knight, this is Duncan, a close friend of mine. And don't worry, your timing was perfect." Danny explained.

"Okay, I get it. How is he going to help?" Duncan hesitated.

"I agree with your friend, Majesty. What would you have me do?" Fright Knight asked, standing.

"Help us fight." Danny stated bluntly.

Jackal roared, getting their attention. They simultaneously raced toward him. Jackal retaliated by backhanding all three of them. The trio quickly got back to their feet.

"Hmm…" Fright Knight thought aloud.

"What?" Danny asked.

"I wanted an idea of how strong this foe is. I get the feeling that even with our combined strength, we cannot defeat him." Fright Knight clarified.

"Then how do we beat him?!" Duncan pressed.

"Your human friends told me this is a beast that is overshadowed. Why not do the same?"

"You mean, me overshadow Duncan?" Danny staggered to say.

"Indeed. Your enemy draws from the beast to power his ghost power, it should be simple for you to mimick."

Danny looked at Duncan. "Are you up for this?"

"I guess so." He sighed.

Danny became intangible and flew straight for Duncan's chest. Immediately the results of the action showed. Duncan's wings changed into what appeared to be green flame. Eyes glowed green. Pants changed from blue to solid black. Danny's leg injury didn't even show up on Duncan.

" _Does that usually happen when you overshadow someone?_ " Duncan asked, but only Danny could hear him.

"No, this is the first time." Danny said, checking out the changes.

" _Now what?_ "

"What's your strongest ability?"

" _Fire breath, duh. How much effort I put into it changes how strong it is._ "

Danny grinned. "I think I know how to take Jackal down with a single shot."

Fright Knight returned to his steed and hurried to what he deemed to be a safe distance. Danny took flight and came in front of Jackal.

"Jackal. Time to face punishment."

Danny took the deepest possible breath and, with help from Duncan, combined his fire breath with his ghostly wail.

The green flame hitched onto the powerful energy in a circular fashion, quickly forming a spinning cone. Jackal screeched once the flames touched his skin. A black scorch mark appeared wherever the fire came into contact, also melting the scales like butter. The vibrations from the wail was sending heat anywhere and everywhere. Not even ten seconds had passed when Duncan exclaimed,

" _Danny stop! It's over._ "

He did as he was told. The Kaiju lay on the ground unconscious, somewhat disfigured from the flame. Jackal lay out cold a short distance away, his clothes smoking and full of burnt holes.

"Oh."

Danny lowered himself down to the ground and separated from Duncan. Once the side effects had faded away, Duncan returned to his human form. He had several cuts and large bruises all over him, but nothing severe. Danny changed back to normal as well, but his leg still refused to let him stand on it.

"I didn't think it would be _that_ strong." Danny confessed.

"I could've told you that. You've never been on the receiving end of your wail."

"True."

Fright Knight came to Danny's side, yet remained silent. A clatter of footsteps in the distance informed the three of Jenna, Isabel, Kenny and the whole of Troy's gang approaching.

"Again with… missing all the… action!" Isabel said, exasperated and exhausted from running. "And what… exactly is that circle… you put in my book?"

"That circle is what summoned me to this world. And it can only be activated by a large group of people, or the Ghost King alone." The Fright Knight explained.

"I should've… recognized a few… of the symbols."

"Hang on," Troy interjected, "What's a Ghost King?"

"Danny." Duncan nudged him.

"Dude!" He seethed. "Now I'm gonna have to explain everything again!"

"I know it's a bad time, but I've got bad news." Kenny suddenly said. Everyone stopped to look at him.

"The time is 12:06…"

 **I'm so evil; I'm so sorry.**


	25. Chapter 23

**I'm so sorry (not sorry) about the cliffhanger; I thought there would be death threats. XD But here it is! But first,**

 **THESE ANIMATIONS ARE THE BEST THING EVER Please go watch them at these links:**

 **watch?v=Rh0CsticEqQ**

 **watch?v=2nyDGjF2pa0**

 **I totally want the second one to be canon. 3**

 **Enough here!**

 **READ!**

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Danny raged. He clutched his hair and dropped to his knees, completely forgetting about his leg. "I was so close…" His voice cracked. "To finally going home…"

"Hate to ruin the moment, but what is going on?" Troy asked, frustrated. "And who the crap is this guy?" Pointing to the Fright Knight.

"Mr. Insensitive." Jenna muttered under her breath.

"Alright." Isabel sighed. "First, Danny's home is not in this world. He's from a parallel earth and midnight was his only chance at getting back, but he missed it to save the city and all our lives."

"And you may call me the Fright Knight; I am King Daniel's military commander. Those who oppose him shall face my wrath!" He raised his sword high into the air, then pointed it at Troy and his friends.

"…What…?" Troy repeated.

"For crying out loud. Troy, I'm half human and half kaiju, right?" Duncan said.

"Once a freak, always a freak." Troy sneered.

"Danny's half human and half ghost." Duncan said, sliding closer to Troy to whisper, "And he's a lot stronger than I am."

"Whoa! You mean…?"

"Yeah. I busted your friends' car and put you in the locker that one time, along with 'vanishing' whenever you guys chased me." Danny finished with a smirk. "I'm sorry about the car thing though. There were so many different ways I could've gotten out, but I panicked."

"So, you're a king?" One of Troy's friends asked.

"Also correct. In the same way Duncan's dad is King of the Kaiju, I'm King of the Ghosts."

"That's actually pretty cool." Another one commented.

Suddenly a M.E.G.T.A.F. jet screamed across the sky, coming back to land close to the Kaiju. Blitz came running out and over to the teens.

"Sorry M.E.G.T.A.F. wasn't here sooner. That blasted thing destroyed a large part of the base, including transportation. Looks like it was one heck of a battle too." He remarked, seeing the scene and Danny's leg.

"You're not gonna take me back there, are you?" Danny flinched.

"Nah son. Don't really have a place to put you anyway." Blitz replied. "But we've got extra equipment especially for situations like this."

"Your Majesty, what will become of the rogue ghost?" Fright Knight asked.

"I'd want him to be returned to the Ghost Zone, and handed over to Walker." Danny answered. "Except for the fact we have no way back to the Ghost Zone."

"I could sheathe my sword in a pumpkin, if you command."

"No, no. And finding a pumpkin this time of year isn't in our favor."

The others stared at them, confused. When the Fright Knight went to retrieve Jackal's unconscious body, Blitz snapped out of it and waved signals to the pilot. The aviator gave a quick thumbs up and started talking into what appeared to be a radio.

Blitz returned his attention to Danny. "You take care of the ghost, I'll handle the Kaiju. After all, M.E.G.T.A.F. is better at managing titans."

Danny chuckled and nodded in agreement. That's when a metal object smacked him in the back of his head. "Ow! What the heck?" He rubbed his head and picked up the mystery item. _The Booomerang…?_ As he stared at the device, he heard rockets in the distance.

"Aw great. Is that thing good or bad?" Duncan moaned.

"Good. Very good." Danny responded; his face lit up as it got closer. "It's called the Specter Speeder."

The flying tub reached their location, parking only a short distance away.

"Danny! Is that you?" Sam yelled once the hatch was open.

"Sam!" Danny cried out and flew over. They came together in a big hug, Sam causing them to spin. Tucker and Jazz hurried out of the Specter Speeder to create a group hug.

"I'm so glad to see you're okay, little brother." Jazz said just before kissing the top of his head.

"Aren't you glad I had us stop to grab the Infini-Map?" Tucker said. "And he's not quite okay. Your leg dude. What happened?" He asked, breaking up the reunion.

"Oh, you know. The usual." Danny brushed it off.

"Really? Does it have anything to do with that thing over there? And the surrounding damage to this place?" Sam pressed, practically scolding him with questions.

"Ok! The thing over there is a Kaiju and yes, my leg got caught in its jaws. As for the wreckage, you just missed the fight."

Danny led them over to the others. "Sam, Tucker, Jazz, this is Duncan, Kenny, Jenna, Isabel, Blitz and Troy." Gesturing to each in succession.

"What about us?" Troy's friends complained.

"Sorry, I don't know any of your names." Danny shrugged. "And this Sam, Tucker and Jazz."

Blitz spoke up first. "Did I hear you right? You're Danny's older sister?"

"That's right." She smiled. "I'm also sure that our parents will be happy to have him back."

At that moment, a small bit of movement caught Danny's eye. He turned his head to see Brandon. It was clear he had heard the last part. Brandon began to walk away.

"Give me a minute, guys." Danny said, leaving everyone else and somewhat hobbling over to Brandon.

"You don't have to explain yourself. You're going home, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I still want to come visit every once in a while. You, Allie, Katie and Max are practically family. Who knows? Maybe I could bring a present or two on a special occasion." Danny winked.

"Ha-ha! I'm sure the twins would enjoy that. Be sure to follow through with it. And… take care." Brandon sighed. Without waiting for a reply, he left.

With the all the action having died down, the Kaiju's body being carried away by helicopters and with dawn approaching, it was time that Team Phantom returned home. Good-byes were all over the place, as well as tears. Danny pulled Duncan away from the group.

"I want to give you something to remember me by." Danny held out his hand and formed an ice crystal. Then he infused it with ghost energy, giving it a green glow. Danny placed it in Duncan's hand.

"Cool. And easy to carry around." Duncan said, twisting around in front of his face.

"It can also be used to contact me if you ever need my help again."

"Thanks a lot. I definitely won't be forgetting any of this anytime soon." Duncan replied, looking back at everyone.

"Danny! Get in, we're leaving!" Sam called over. Tucker had placed the Infini-Map on the console, while Jazz sat in the driver's seat. Danny could only assume that the Fright Knight was already in the back. Danny floated over and hung out of the side door. He waved as the Specter Speeder hummed to life and lifted into the air.

A ghost portal appeared on the horizon, according to the map. The Speeder took off, aimed directly for the swirling green vortex. It quickly disappeared inside and the portal vanished behind them.

Duncan stared at the spot it had been for a few minutes until Jenna got his attention. He looked down at the glowing crystal in his hand, then to the group of people, and back down. Duncan smiled and began walking over, silently stuffing the cold crystal in his pocket.

 **End.**

 **Voila! It is finished!** **And only a day after I promised... *kicks self***

 **I hope you all enjoyed! I know I did while making it.**


	26. Side Note!

**I have put up a poll on my profile asking which story to make next! Everyone has two choices. :)**

 **Hopefully, whichever one/two end up with the most votes won't take so long to make. XD**


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